The Best Memory Board Games

There’s a wide variety of board games that can help improve your memory, as well as provide you and your friends with exciting moments that you won’t be forgetting anytime soon. Here, we’ll be looking at some of those games that we’re sure are not going to disappoint you.

Ramsès

Pros:

✓ Excellent memory game
✓ Suitable for all ages
✓ Simple rules
✓ Several variations

Cons:

✕ Cards are a little fragile

Characteristics:

● Category: Board Game
● Age: 7 and over
● Number of players: 1 to 5
● Average duration: 30 minutes
● Manufacturer: Ravensburger

In Ramsès, you go on an adventure and challenge the pyramids to collect as many treasures as you can. Memorization is the most important skill that will allow you to win, however, logic and deduction will be of great aid to you as well if used properly.

The game is played by 1 to 5 players and you can choose to play 1 of 2 variations: one variation is the standard mode which is for casual players and beginners, the other mode is for the more advanced. The game contains 47 pyramids of three different colors (yellow, red, and blue); 30 cards; a game board which contains 48 holes; and treasure tiles. For the advanced variation, several game contents are added including scarabs, mummies, and Egyptologists.

The objective of the game is to find as many treasures as possible. However, you’ll receive victory points only by finding the treasure indicated by the treasure card you’ve drawn.

To start a game, shuffle the cards; and insert the treasure tiles in the board. The pyramids are placed randomly on the board and there must be only one empty space shown without treasure.

The first player must draw the top card of the draw pile. The card will indicate the treasure to be sought as well as its value (the number of victory points the player would receive if they manage to find the indicated treasure). To find the treasures, you have to push a pyramid onto the empty space, if no treasure appears, you make another move: you have to keep moving the pyramids until you eventually find a treasure. If you find the treasure indicated on the card, you keep that card, which means its points will be added to your score when the game ends; but if you come across a different treasure than the one on the card, you have to return the card to the bottom of the draw pile.

When players draw an action card, various things can happen: sandstorm cards rotate the game board a quarter turn, scorpion cards force all players to take turns where they have to be careful not to find a treasure at the risk of losing points, the superhuman cards allow a player to push a row of pyramids, and the duel cards forces two players to put one treasure card each at stake: whoever finds the other’s treasure first wins both cards.

At the end of the game, each player counts how many points they have by adding up all the values of the treasure cards they’ve obtained, and whoever has the most points is the winner of the game.

In the advanced mode, the setup and objective of the game remain the same, but the extra tokens add even more excitement as players will have a lot more to do, and a lot more opportunities to increase their score will be available.

Outfoxed!

Pros:

✓ Deduction game accessible to 5 year olds
✓ Short game duration
✓ Cooperative game

Cons:

✕ The randomness factor caused by the dice

Characteristics:

● Category: Board game
● Age: 5 and over
● Number of players: 2 to 4
● Average duration: 20 minutes
● Manufacturer: Game Factory

Outfoxed! is a cooperative game in which you and your friends will play as chicken detectives and try to catch the fox who stole Mrs. Plumpert’s delicious pot pie. Having a good memory will be of great use during the course of this game as you will have to remember several details about the guilty fox that will help you determine which one of the suspects they are. Outfoxed! is played with dice and cards, the goal is to find the fox who stole the pot pie before they escape through the foxhole.

At the start of each game, arrange the different suspect cards facedown around the board, then turn any two of them faceup. Shuffle the thief cards, then take one, and, without looking at its face, place it in the clue decoder device: the fox on the face of that card is the guilty fox.

The players work as a team, trying their best to catch the sneaky fox. During your turn, you must announce the action you intend to take: either reveal a suspect card, or move to another location to find a clue. To perform your intended action, you must roll the 3 dice, and you can reroll up to 2 extra times if you want: you can decide how many dice to reroll, you can reroll all 3 dice, or just 2, or only 1.

To be able to move, the dice must show at least 3 dog paws. If you want to reveal a suspect card, you will need the dice to show 3 eyes. If you don’t get the results needed to perform your intended action, the fox token will advance three spaces toward the foxhole.

If you manage to move and land on a clue space, you get to draw a random clue token which will reveal some information about the guilty fox. To do this, take the clue decoder and place the clue token on it, then pull the small piece of the decoder sideways to open it. This will reveal whether or not the guilty fox is wearing that clue: If a green dot appears, that means that the guilty fox is wearing that clue; if a white or red dot appears, that means that the guilty fox is not wearing that clue.

If you decide to reveal a suspect card, and the dice roll in your favor, then turn two suspect cards faceup. Now, you can study these suspect foxes and determine whether it’s possible they’re the guilty fox or not, based on the clues you’ve gathered. This is where memory plays a big part, as you will have to remember which clue the decoder revealed was worn by the guilty fox and which wasn’t.

The game ends if you manage to determine which fox stole the pot pie: If you and your team are sure you know which fox did it, you announce its name, and then pull out the thief card from the decoder. If you’re correct, you’ve won! If it’s not the fox you had in mind, then you must have made a mistake and the game ends in a loss. The game also ends in a loss if the fox token reaches the foxhole. This is not a problem, though. You can just start another round and try to catch the wily fox this time!

yokai

Pros:

✓ Deduction and memorization game for all ages
✓ Very simple rules and setup
✓ Several game variations

Cons:

✕ A maximum of 4 players

Characteristics:

● Category: Card game
● Age: 8 and over
● Number of players: 2 to 4
● Average duration: 20 minutes
● Manufacturer: Bankiiiz

Yokai is a cooperative deduction game in which players will try to appease the different Yokai families. The objective is for the players to group the families together. The players are not allowed to talk to each other at all; they can only give each other clues using the cards of the game.

At the start of the game, all Yokai cards are shuffled and placed facedown on the table in a 4 x 4 grid. The 16 cards are divided into 4 families: Oni, Kappa, Kitsune, and Rokurokubi. Players take turns performing 3 different actions: discreetly look at the face of two Yokai cards, move one Yokai card, and reveal a clue card or place one on a Yokai card.

The clue cards are placed on the Yokai cards to indicate the family of the Yokai on which it is placed. A clue card can indicate between 1 to 3 families. A Yokai card which has a clue card placed on top of it is locked, which means it can no longer be moved or flipped.

The game ends when there are no more clue cards in the draw pile or if one of the players declares that the Yokai are appeased. To determine if you have won, reveal all the cards and check if all the Yokai families are grouped. You will have a sheet with the possible scores based on how many clue cards you’ve used which will help you determine your final score.

You can make the game more difficult and interesting by using the affinity cards which indicate that certain families need to be adjacent, or choosing a certain objective card which will determine the final formation you have to create with the Yokai cards.

Concentration

Pros:

✓ Simple rules
✓ Accessible to children from the age of 3
✓ Multiple game themes

Cons:

✕ Game themes to be purchased separately

Characteristics:

● Category: Card game
● Age: 3 and over
● Number of players: 2 to 8
● Average duration: 30 to 45 minutes
● Manufacturer: Ravensburger

A classic game that’s sure to get you to exercise your memory. Concentration is an ideal game to bring friends and family around the table regardless of their age. The very first version of Concentration was released many decades ago, and the game continues to be renewed and diversified through many themes to fit all audiences.

The objective of the game remains the same, regardless of the theme you have. That objective is to collect as many pairs of cards as possible: this is done by turning over two identical cards and then adding them to your collection. To start a game, you will need to shuffle the cards and lay them facedown on the table.

After determining which player is to start, the players take turns flipping 2 cards over so that they’d be faceup. If the 2 flipped cards are identical, the player collects them so that they’d be added to their final score when the game is over. After that, the same player takes another turn.

If the two cards are not identical, the player flips them facedown once again, and the next player takes their turn. It’s important to remember that the cards never move from their original positions. Players will have to remember the positions of the cards that have been flipped over and try to match pairs.

The game ends when all the pairs are found. At that point, the player who has obtained the most pairs wins the game.

There are versions of Concentration that are designed for little children. These versions introduce an auditory element to help the kids identify and remember the cards. This is done by adding a talking figurine to the game. For example, in the wild animal version, the rules of the game remain unchanged. However, the players will have to find pairs by listening to animal sounds produced by the Noah figurine!

The Game With a Thousand Titles

Pros:

✓ Accessible from the age of 5
✓ Multiple characters
✓ Interactive game that exercises memory and imagination 

Cons:

✕ Two game boxes to be purchased separately 
✕ The instruction paper is written in French only

Characteristics:

● Category: Board game
● Age: 5 and over
● Number of players: 2 to 6
● Average duration: 20 minutes
● Manufacturer: Oya

The Game With a Thousand Titles will allow you to exercise your memory as well as your imagination. The game has two boxes: the West side and the East side. Each box has a double-sided game board and 36 character tiles, the equivalent of 18 pairs. The goal is to reunite all the couples who are hiding in different locations around the game board. To add to the fun, during the course of the game, players will be creating the story of every character!

To play a game of The Game of With a Thousand Titles, choose a side of the game board that you wish to play on. Then, shuffle the character tiles and place them face down on the board. Players take turns telling the story of the characters.

On your turn, flip a character tile faceup and announce the title of their story out loud. You must then tell a story explaining why the character is in that location and how they got there. Then you flip a second character and do the same. If the characters are not couples, you must flip them facedown again and pass your turn, but if you do flip a couple, you collect their tiles.

The game ends when there are no more character tiles on the board, the player who has found the most couples wins the game and the one who has told the most beautiful and interesting story receives acclaim.

Several game variants can be created to adapt the game to younger or older players. If you have the two game boxes, you can put them together to make up the whole town and play with the 72 character tiles (36 pairs) or just play with your favorite characters.

Monster Chase

Pros:

✓ Very fast games
✓ Accessible from the age of 3
✓ Teaches kids to face their fears of the monsters under the bed

Cons:

✕ Can feel repetitive

Characteristics:

● Category: Card game
● Age: 3 and over
● Number of players: 1 to 6
● Average duration: 10 minutes
● Manufacturer: Masked Scorpion

Monster Chase is a cooperative card game for children, in which players will take the roles of children who are in their beds and who are attacked by monsters. The monsters are frightened by certain toys and you have to find the right toys in your room to banish them into the closet.

Players try to find the correct toys in as few turns as they can. This is because every turn the players pick an incorrect toy they risk the appearance of another monster. If you manage to find the toy that scares the monster, you can send it to the closet and reveal another monster to defeat. If you fail to send the monsters to the closet and they surround your bed from all four sides, you lose the game. However, if you manage to defeat all the monsters and send them to the closet before they manage to surround you, you win the game!

Memory plays a big part in Monster Chase, as you have to remember the position of every toy you turn faceup, whether it was correct or incorrect.

The game can be played in several variations. One option is to use some of the additional tiles provided, which have special effects.

Comparison Table