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Here is the short version, because you probably have a birthday or a rainy Saturday to plan. The escape room games for kids that actually work were built around a child's age from the start, which is rarer on a shelf than you would expect. For ages 5 to 7, buy the EXIT: The Game Kids boxes. For 8 or 9, EXIT's Family boxes hold two adventures each. Escape the Crate sells online family games that arrive by email in minutes. Finders Seekers runs a monthly kit, with a Junior Explorers line for ages 5 to 10 and a main...

People searching for games like Deadbolt Mystery Society usually arrive with one of three complaints. If the monthly charge is the problem, start with the section below, because Deadbolt's own FAQ page contradicts its own checkout on what a subscription costs, and they sell one-time boxes with nothing recurring attached. If you have worked through the catalog and want more of the same deduction, Unsolved Case Files and Cryptic Killers are the closest matches. If the puzzles were too easy, our games go harder; if the evening ran long, EXIT: The Game is shorter and cheaper, and if it was...

If you want an escape room game to play at home this Christmas, the shortlist is shorter than you would expect. We checked the major at-home escape room companies when we last looked, and most of them never make a holiday title at all. What is left is two digital games you can buy and start the same day, ours and Escape the Crate's, plus the EXIT advent calendars, which have to be in the house by December 1. Ours is Mission: ElfPossible: 1 to 6 players, about 1.5 to 3 hours, ages 14+, emailed within minutes of checkout. One...

The best gifts for puzzle lovers turn on one question: does this person solve on their own, or do they want other people at the table? For a solo solver, a wooden jigsaw from Artifact Puzzles or a spiral-bound crossword book from the New York Times store will land better than any boxed game. For someone who wants company, we would buy The Fifth Column. It takes one to six players about two to four hours and holds 4.9 stars from 151 reviews. If you want something small, EXIT: The Secret Lab and our digital Mission: Elfpossible both hold up....

Two people can play a boxed escape room game built for six, and some of it gets better. Three puzzle families go badly with a crowd (ciphers, grid logic, reveals) and they all fail for the same reason: one person takes the pen and the rest watch. At a table of two that stops being a problem. What you give up is speed, because there is nobody to talk you out of a wrong theory, so expect a box to run past its printed estimate. If you want a single recommendation, ours for two players is The Fifth Column. We...