One of the great joys in parenting comes when kids move beyond Candy Land and progress to games that require parents to exercise brain cells. The ultimate test of a family game is how well it appeals to a wide range of ages, and finding the tricky blend of skill (to keep parents and older kids interested) and chance (so adults don't always beat the less-experienced-and-knowledgeable).

Other requirements: fast play, no long waits between turns and easy directions.

I played several family games released this year with a preschooler, sixth-grader, parents, grandparents and even a great-grandparent to see which would fare well for holiday gifts and seasonal gatherings.

Whoonu
Cranium Inc., $16.95
Card game, age 8 and up, three to six players

Whoonu takes a basic concept — literally comparing apples and oranges — and spins it into a fun game that works well with multi-generations.

Like all of Seattle game-maker Cranium's creations, the rules are easily explained in less than five minutes. One player is the Whoozit; the others are dealt four cards with different items (everything from "hot tubs" to "taking the long way" to "brownies with nuts"). Each picks a card he thinks will be the Whoozit's favorite. The Whoozit then arranges the items in order of his fancy, with the least receiving one point and so on up to the most preferred.

This could give players who know each other well an advantage, except that folks are stuck with the cards they're dealt, meaning they may have limited choices (hmmm, hip hop vs. trampoline vs. spiders vs. maps).

With reading help, everyone from our preschooler to her 85-year-old great-grandma traded cards, prompting lots of, yes, "Who knew?" comments.

Ruckus
Hubbub, $9.99
Card game, age 7 and up, two to four players (www.playhubbub.com)

Another deceptively simple idea translated into our family's favorite new game. Despite the age suggestion, this game doesn't require reading, and our 4-year-old picked up the concept (enough to win once, even.)

Players receive seven cards with odd drawings (fish man, monkey in the bottle — don't ask me what they mean) and must put down any pairs or trios. If another player has a matching card, he can place it on top and swipe the pile. Once play is finished, a new card is dealt and the process begins again. The goal is to end with the most cards in piles and none in your hand.

There's some strategy involved; it's not the fastest player who wins, as sometimes it's prudent to wait a moment as someone captures a pile — so you can then steal it away yourself. But wait too long and someone might go out, leaving an extra card in your hand counting against you.

Shrek's Totally Tangled Tales
b EQUAL Company, $29.99
DVD game, age 6 and up, one to four players (www.bequal.com)

Humph. This DVD's hook is that it lets players choose one of three skill levels so kids and adults can play together with age-appropriate questions that adjust in difficulty. (Answer correctly and they get harder; easier queries pop up after wrong answers.)

In fact, this adult got so "equal," I kept losing to my 4-year-old. (Needless to say, my kids got a kick out of that.)

We played Shrek's Totally Tangled Tales (other themes include "Madagascar," The Bible and Santa trivia), which poses 1,600 questions and puzzles about fairy tales and children's literature.

All game play takes place on the TV: Players choose one of four characters, which are automatically moved on an onscreen board.

"Shrek 2" main characters (Shrek, Fiona, Puss in Boots and Donkey) read questions aloud. Tasks include finding a difference between two pictures, deciphering word puzzles, deciding whether a briefly described plot is real or "twisted" and answering "Shrek" trivia questions. Parents will find some of the movie's edgy humor is carried to the DVD (for example, Donkey calls out, "Hey, Frosting Face, you're up" to the Gingerbread Man character).

Like the movie it's based on, this was a hit with our family.

"Squint Junior"
Out of the Box Publishing, $16.99
Spatial game, age 8 and up, three to eight players (www.otb-games.com)

For our family, success in this game had less to do with age and more to do with spatial ability.

Players take turns drawing cards that give a word (such as a sword or star) and a suggested pattern to show it.

Overlapping transparent cards with simple designs (straight and curved lines, circles, squiggles), one player creates the image while the others guess what it is. The designer and correct guesser both get a token. Younger children might have a hard time positioning the cards, though they can guess others' designs.

Unlike a drawing, which can be moved or picked up for display, it's harder for players around a table to see the card creations.

The Family Fun Game
Cranium, $19.95
Board game, age 8 and up, four or more players (www.cranium.com)

Cranium mixes its eponymous adult/teen game with its kid version, Cadoo, to come up with this fun-for-all-ages blend of the familiar (acting out or sculpting clues for teammates to guess) and the novel (memorizing and recreating color patterns).

With some adaptations, our 4-year-old could participate, but most tasks weren't too easy for our 12-year-old, either.

Set up as a two-team game, it works best with adult-child pairs or trios. Depending on the color they land on, players select from four boxes of themed cards. If they answer correctly or complete a task described on the card, they roll a die to proceed around the board.

Kids have the advantage with some assigned feats, such as crab-walking around the room while balancing a plastic frog on their stomach. Others, such as drawing a picture with one's eyes closed or listing three U.S. cities that have hosted the Olympics, are what garner the age-8-and-up recommendation and get the adult working.

One complaint: The plastic flipping frogs (à la Balloon Lagoon) don't get played enough.

Stephanie Dunnewind: sdunnewind@seattletimes.com