We already own board games. Why would we play Hangtime?
Someone asked us this on Reddit, and it's a fair question. We love board games too, so here's our honest take on when each one wins.
When the board game wins
- A small group that wants strategy. Four people and an evening for Catan or Ticket to Ride? Get the box out. Nothing on a screen beats cardboard for that.
- Screen-free nights. Sometimes the point is that nobody's looking at a phone. Fair.
- The feel of it. Shuffling real cards, rolling real dice. That matters, and we won't pretend otherwise.
When Hangtime wins
The group is big
Most board games top out at 4 to 6 players. Bowl Game takes 16, and most of our games take 10. When the cousins are over, nobody sits out.
Some of you aren't in the room
Board games are hard to share over FaceTime. Most Hangtime games have a remote mode, so Grandma in another city plays the same game from her phone.
The game has secrets
Phones are perfect for hidden information. Your Rummy hand is private on your phone, the Liar in Who's Lying? gets a different screen from everyone else, and votes are secret. No peeking, no shielding cards with your elbow.
Nobody wants to teach rules or keep score
The game explains itself on the TV, keeps the clock, and adds up the points. No rulebook arguments, no napkin maths.
No setup, no cleanup, no missing pieces
It's a link. Open it, play, close the tab. Nothing to lose under the couch.
It keeps changing
Trivia Board writes fresh categories every day and skips clues your group has already seen. You can also write a category about your own family. A box of trivia cards runs out; this doesn't.
It costs less than one more box
Three games are free forever. The other four are $5 once for the host, with no subscription, and players never pay. That's less than a single board game.
Our take
It isn't one or the other. Plenty of game nights start with a board game for the four people who arrived early and finish with Bowl Game once the whole crowd is there. Hangtime is the game you can start in thirty seconds when the box would take twenty minutes.
Put a game on the TV, everyone joins from their phone. Three games are free, no app or account.
Start a free gameNo group handy? Try Wordy Birdy solo, free, in 10 seconds →Questions
Is Hangtime meant to replace board games?
No. It's for the nights a board game doesn't fit: big groups, mixed ages, remote family, or no time for setup and rules.
How many people can play compared with a board game?
Up to 16 in Bowl Game and up to 10 in most other Hangtime games, more than most board games allow.
Is it more expensive than a board game?
No. Three games are free, and the other four are $5 once for the host, with no subscription.
Do we need a TV?
No. A laptop everyone can see works fine, and you can cast it to a TV if you have one.