Free party games

What makes a good party game

A party game is loud, quick and easy to explain. The rules fit in one sentence, a round lasts a minute or three, and losing is half the fun because the next round starts straight away. The best ones work when someone is watching over your shoulder, and several work best with two people crowded round one screen.

The party games on Kiloo come in two kinds. Four are made for a friend on the same device: a sumo push-off, dodgem cars, a tug of war and a quiz you pass back and forth. Each of those can also be played alone against the computer. The other three are crowd games against computer rivals, where a whole field of beans, monsters or elves races or scraps for the top spot. All of them are short, bright and full of bumps.

Party games to start with

For two players on one screen, Sumo Bump is the simplest: shove, charge and barge until the other wrestler steps over the rope, while the ring slowly shrinks so nobody can stall. Bumper Cars is the same idea on a slick dodgem floor. Stars fall from the dark, a hard bump knocks them out of the car you hit, and the player with the most stars after sixty seconds takes the round. Tug Team is about timing rather than strength: a power meter swings past a green sweet spot, and only a press on the green really heaves, so mashing the button makes your crew slip in the mud.

Lightning Quiz suits a group. It has 330 original questions across ten subjects, a sixty-second lightning round, a Daily 10 and Hot seat, where two players pass the phone back and forth.

For a crowd game on your own, Bumper Royale is a three-round knockout show for 24 beans, with an obstacle dash, a floor that falls apart and a shrinking platform, all in about three minutes. Monster Party Rush puts forty monsters on one obstacle course and lets the top 24 through to the next level. Snowball Arena, a snowball fight against three elves, appears with the Christmas category in season.

Sharing one keyboard, phone or tablet

On a keyboard the two-player games split the keys. In Sumo Bump and Bumper Cars player one uses WASD and Space, player two the arrow keys and Enter. In Tug Team player one presses A or the left arrow and player two L or the right arrow. Sit side by side and make sure each of you has room for both hands.

On a phone or tablet, lay the device flat on a table between you. Bumper Cars turns the rink to run up the screen with both sets of controls facing outwards, and in Sumo Bump, Bumper Cars and Tug Team each player drags or taps on their own half. Bumper Royale and Monster Party Rush put a stick and buttons to jump, bump or dive on the screen. If you play alone, the two-player games offer computer opponents at three levels, from Easy to Sharp or Rookie to Ox, so you can practise before a rematch.

Frequently asked questions