The 12 Best Board Games for College Kids and Young Adults of 2020

This incredibly funny, fast-paced game is perfect for playing with friends and loved ones of all ages, teens to grandparents. There’s no learning curve. Just open the box, pick a character—Queen Spatula, perhaps, or Super Ninja Monkey—and prepare for a wild ride. Depending on your cards, you may find yourself wearing an impromptu snorkel while battling bees, singing operatic arias in a made-up language, or rapping about tomato soup. Needless to say, the game is wildly popular among teens and college kids.

Apples to Apples is so beloved by the teen and 20-something crowd, many families use it as the gold standard by which they judge all other board games. In this dorm-pleaser, players are dealt seven nouns—places, faces or pop culture icons—and compete to pair them with an adjective card supplied by a highly subjective judge, who awards points based on entertainment value. The result is a hilarious, easy-to-learn game that quickly draws a crowd.

This rollicking, edgy and hilarious card game for college kids and 20-somethings is clearly inspired by the ever-popular Apples to Apples, at least in terms of gameplay: You match cards for comic effect and the most hilarious combination wins. Where Apples has you pairing nouns and adjectives, Humanity's cards offer questions and answers of the most outrageous sort. Best of all, you can download the cards and make the game yourself.

Cards Against Humanity may offer plenty of raucous amusement, but cooperative games like Forbidden Island wile away the hours with a different sort of fun. It takes teamwork to rescue the four sacred treasures—the Crystal of Fire, Ocean's Chalice, the Earth Stone, and the Statue of the Wind—hidden on the mystical Forbidden Island before it sinks beneath the waves. It's a breathless mad dash of a game and completely un-winnable unless all the players work together. Big. Fun.

When it comes to board games, few have the fanatical teen and young adult following of Settlers of Catan. Would-be Settlers conquer territory on the island of Catan by building settlements, cities, and roads across a variable playing field comprised of 19 hexagonal tiles. Big fun—and very addictive. In fact, the award-winning strategy game is so popular, game shops hold regular Settlers of Catan nights for teen and adult players. So do some dorms. And a Settlers of Catan party is a great theme for any board game night.

Players take on the role of CDC scientists in this highly addictive game for teens and grown-ups. Here, everyone works together, racing to quell plague breakouts before pandemics erupt on a global scale. Don't worry, it's only the entire fate of the human race in your hands. It takes the first round or two to grasp the rules, then it's game on.

Is there anything better than an evening spent with dorm buddies, immersed in a cheesy sci-fi horror flick? Well, yes: playing a great dorm board game inspired by cheesy sci-fi horror flicks. Because what could be more fun than saving humanity from Martian attack while wearing a tutu and dancing on a ball? Invasion from Outer Space's game board is a modular meadow of amusement park rides, a fun house and other carnival attractions—perfect for a do-or-die battle against plastic aliens. It's silly, addictive fun with plenty of room for collaborative strategizing, plot twists and scenario shifts.

Deceptively simple and highly addictive, Ticket to Ride is a perfect game for the college crowd—entertaining to play with just two people but fun with a crowd as well. According to the game's backstory, a group of friends has gathered in 1900 to celebrate the anniversary of Phileas Fogg's fictional, epic race around the world—and issue a new challenge involving railroads and a breathless, week-long race.

This hilarious card game is tailor-made for grown-up Lemony Snicket fans. The idea? Players compete to make their characters—a dubious family of five—as miserable as possible by having them terrorized by topiaries and menaced by mice while making their opponents' "families" as happy as possible. It's the perfect game for a pair of stressed-out roommates—or a quartet of them—to play. More players? There are expansion packs available too.

A zombie board game? Last Night on Earth is a particularly fun take on the battle between humans and flesh-eating, undead hordes. It offers enough mid-game twists, strategic challenges and fast-paced fun to keep any group of zombie fans delighted.

The zany Game of Things takes all the good things about the old Loaded Questions game and kicks it up so many notches, there's just no comparison. The topic cards are absolutely hilarious. Best of all, there's no pesky game board trying to direct you to some boring question category.

This fast-paced, tactical game features strategy, betrayal and the undeniable allure of little plastic tiki heads. Maneuver your tikis into a super-secret combination, while sabotaging fellow players' efforts to do the same, and you might advance your own totem around the board. Fail and you'll just have to play this wildly addictive game again.