7 fun party games to play on your phones during Chinese New Year gatherings

Family gatherings can be a drag sometimes. 

After surviving the gauntlet of nosy relatives pestering you about your love life/studies/career/child-bearing prospects, you could find solace in the food spread or find a corner to chill with family members of your generation that you can actually talk to. 

Or you could kill some time together with a round (or 10) of games on your smartphones. 

No, we’re not talking about serious mobile gaming titles like Fortnite and PUBG — not all of us are hyperactive zoomers with way too much sugar intake from pineapple tarts. We’re talking about the casual games, the ones that anyone across the categorical spectrum can easily jump into without needing to drown in instructions. 

No subscription to services like Apple Arcade needed for this run. All you need is your smartphone (which is hopefully not too old a model) and access to the home’s wireless internet connection for a smoother experience while playing. Pro tip: it helps if you’re being polite when asking for the wifi password. 

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Spaceteam

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3fsvKnIVJg[/embed]

Spaceteam is appropriately described as a “cooperative shouting game for phones and tablets”, because that’s exactly what it is. Players will be in charge of manning a spacecraft hurtling through the cosmos with a control panel full of switches, buttons, knobs and sliders on the screen. A readout will instruct what needs to be done, and it needs to be executed quickly before the timer runs out. 

The trick here is that what needs to be done might not be on your screen — it’s on your friend’s screen. So yes, you’ll need to yell technobabble like “engage hyperjig”, “set the polypuffer to five” and “turn on infinity” out loud. Things get rowdier during the later rounds, when everyone needs to execute commands together, like flipping phones upside down, for example. Sure, everyone will die in the cold of space eventually, but at least everyone dies laughing. 

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ba34RcTmt0[/embed]

One of the best virtual reality experiences comes to mobile, and now everyone can join in the fun without strapping on a heavy hi-tech goggle. The game’s a blast, and well worth the $15 to download the app. Your ang bao money should be able to cover the cost, anyway. 

You know that movie cliché where a ticking time bomb has to be defused by someone who doesn’t know which wire to cut and who has to listen to instructions by someone who does? Yeah, this game’s exactly that. One clueless person handles the explosive device while the rest of the players with the information to defuse it (but can’t see the bomb) will have to articulate (or shriek) the instructions out loud. Let’s hope your relationships aren’t the ones getting blown up in the process. 

Bowmasters

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arFso521RpI[/embed]

Go one-on-one with a friendly (or otherwise) family member in a game that’ll see virtual arrows being fired at each other. It’s a simple enough game, really — take control of an avatar and take turns shooting at each other. Each round will have players placed in varying distances and terrain, so it’s a trial-and-error process to arrive at the correct shooting power and angle that lands the arrows. The retro cartoony graphics are pretty too, so that’s a plus. 

Psych!

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu4ttGfTpOg[/embed]

Everyone knows Psych!. But in case you don’t, it’s a mobile game produced by comedian and talkshow host Ellen Degeneres that’s meant to be played with a lot of people at parties and gatherings. 

It’s a multiplayer guessing game, where players have to answer trivia questions — the twist here being that players are the ones coming up with the answers too. The aim here is to make up fake answers and hope that another player’s gullible enough to pick it. The real fun comes when you play the game’s “And the Truth Comes Out” category, where there’ll be questions about each player. Secrets could come tumbling out, and that’s always a fun time. 

Heads Up!

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1V1CctsIUc[/embed]

Also made by team Ellen, Heads Up! is simply a smartphone version of charades. Players take turns holding up the device and try to guess the word or phrase that’s on the screen, with clues acted or yelled out by other players. Oh, and it also records a front-facing video while you’re playing so you can view and share how goofy other players have been. 

Triple Agent

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gpg63R5eNbc[/embed]

Backstabbing is fun! Or at least it is in Triple Agent, a multiplayer game that can be played with up to nine people. Players are either a member of The Service or a double agent for the villainous organisation VIRUS, and at the end of each game, everyone will have to vote on who deserves imprisonment. 

How does one decide who to toss into jail? The main phone is passed around the players, with each pass revealing more incriminating information about each other. Spicy. 

Mucho Party

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If you have a Nintendo Switch, Super Mario Party is one of the best party titles to play when there’s a lot of people to entertain. No Switch? You can always download Mucho Party, a mobile take on the experience with a tonne of mini-games to play together with friends and family. And they’re all simple enough for anyone — even your grandparents — to pick up pretty quickly. 

ilyas@asiaone.com