Matthew Smail

Play it cool in this simple but fun game from Brain Games, winner of the Essen games festival's Children's Game of the Year award

The Bark Side is about as mechanically simple as any game out there, yet it is no worse as a result. Instead, it uses bright, characterful artwork and Man's best friend to create a cute (but wafer thin) narrative that appeals to children…

How far will you go to save your books as the library housing them goes up in flames?

We step into the shadows for a tense game of deceit and subversion.

King's Road is a title suitable — and indeed well scaled for — any number of players from two to five, with a clever balance of simplicity and depth.

It's time to venture under the bed, if you dare. Take control of a band of stuffed toys to fight against surges of enemies.

If simplicity's your style, look no further than this ghoultastic game of 'Guess Who?', where it's all about the numbers.

It's cardboard coaster time for us in Coaster Park, but can this game's marble-rolling fun cut through all its excess baggage?

Build yourself some ships worthy of the great seas in resource-management card game Shipwrights of the North Sea, but beware the sabotage of your fellow vikings.