Escape room board games

Last checked 28 October 2026

Quick answer: For young kids, EXIT Kids: The Great Bee-Scape is 5+ and needs no reading. EXIT: The Game Family has two adventures for families with children from 8. For a first grown-up escape room, try EXIT: The Haunted Roller Coaster or Unlock! Heroic Adventures, then EXIT: The Abandoned Cabin. Most EXIT boxes play once, so check each card.

An escape room in a box gives you the same buzz as the real thing: you're locked in somewhere, there are odd clues everywhere, and the whole team has to work together to get out. They're all co-op (everyone wins or loses together), so nobody's left out. One thing to know before you buy: most EXIT games ask you to write on, fold and cut the cards, so each box plays once. That makes them a good Christmas present, because they're new every time. We've put them in order of the age on the box, youngest first.

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1. EXIT Kids: The Great Bee-Scape

An escape room for five-year-olds, and nobody needs to read. You work through riddle cards together to get Betty Bee home, and nothing gets torn, so it plays again with new riddles.

Players: 1 to 4 players
Age: 5+
Play time: about 20 minutes
Our teaching rating: Very easy to teach

Why it suits this: An escape room for 5-year-olds, by Inka, Markus and Emely Brand. You solve riddle cards together to get Betty Bee home, and nobody needs to read. Unlike the grown-up EXIT boxes, nothing gets torn, and each round gives you a new mix of six riddles, so it plays again and again. It's 1 to 4 players, 5 and up, about 20 minutes.

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Details last checked 22 October 2026.

EXIT The Game Family box: a dark manor and a sweet factory with cartoon animal heroes

2. EXIT: The Game Family: 2 Escape Adventures

Two escape-room adventures in one box, made for families: animal heroes take on a spooky manor and a sweet factory. As with every EXIT game you write on, fold and cut the cards, so each plays once.

Players: 2 to 4 players
Age: 8+
Play time: 45 to 75 minutes
Our teaching rating: Easy to teach

Why it suits this: Made for families whose kids are too old for EXIT Kids and too young for the grown-up boxes. There are two adventures in here, The Mystery at Meanstone Manor and The Caper at Candy Castle, each with animal heroes. You write on, fold and cut the cards, so each adventure plays once. It's 2 to 4 players, 8 and up, 45 to 75 minutes per adventure.

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Details last checked 27 October 2026.

EXIT The Haunted Roller Coaster box: a figure silhouetted in a glowing green ghost train tunnel shaped like a monster's mouth

3. EXIT: The Haunted Roller Coaster

A good first EXIT. You're stuck on a ghost train ride with the gates locked, and you write on, fold and cut the cards to get out, so it plays once. Kosmos rates it 2 out of 5 for difficulty.

Players: 1 to 4 players
Age: 10+
Play time: 60 to 120 minutes
Our teaching rating: Easy to teach

Why it suits this: A good first grown-up EXIT. You're stuck on a ghost train with the gates locked and have to puzzle your way off. Kosmos rates it 2 out of 5 for difficulty, at the novice end of its range. Like most EXIT games it's one play only, as you'll be cutting and folding the cards. It's 1 to 4 players, 10 and up, 1 to 2 hours.

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Details last checked 22 October 2026.

Unlock! Heroic Adventures box: three panels showing a detective in a deerstalker hat, a young woman and a pixel-art scene

4. Unlock! Heroic Adventures

Three card-based escape rooms in one box, run by a free app that keeps time and gives hints. Superheroes in Nova City, the Day of the Dead and a Viking saga, each one harder than the last.

Players: 1 to 6 players
Age: 10+
Play time: about 60 minutes
Our teaching rating: Easy to teach

Why it suits this: Cyril Demaegd's Unlock! series runs on a free app that keeps time, checks your codes and gives hints. This box has three adventures that get harder as you go: superheroes in Nova City, the Day of the Dead and a Viking saga. You'll need a phone or tablet. It's 1 to 6 players, 10 and up, about 60 minutes per adventure.

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Details last checked 22 October 2026.

5. EXIT: The Abandoned Cabin

An escape room in a box. Your car's broken down and you're locked in a cabin with a book and a decoder disc. You mark, fold and tear the cards to solve it, so it plays once.

Players: 1 to 4 players
Age: 12+
Play time: 60 to 120 minutes
Our teaching rating: Easy to teach

Why it suits this: The one plenty of people start with. Your car's broken down and you're locked in a cabin with a book and a decoder disc. Inka and Markus Brand's puzzles are a bit tougher here, and Kosmos rates it 2.5 out of 5. You mark, fold and tear the cards, so it plays once. It's 1 to 4 players, 12 and up, 1 to 2 hours.

Check price on Amazon for EXIT: The Abandoned Cabin (opens in a new tab)

Details last checked 21 October 2026.

6. MicroMacro: Crime City

One huge black-and-white city map, a magnifying glass and 16 cases. You follow suspects across the drawing to work out who did it and why. It won the Spiel des Jahres in 2021.

Players: 1 to 4 players
Age: 12+
Play time: 15 to 45 minutes
Our teaching rating: Very easy to teach

Why it suits this: Not strictly an escape room, but it scratches the same itch. Johannes Sich's game is one huge black-and-white city map, a magnifying glass and 16 cases. You follow suspects across the drawing to work out who did it and why. There's no clock and nothing gets cut up. It won the Spiel des Jahres (Germany's big game of the year award) in 2021. It's 1 to 4 players, 12 and up, 15 to 45 minutes.

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Details last checked 22 October 2026.

Like working together? See our cooperative board games. Buying for a teenager? Try board games for teenagers. Prefer a whodunit? See games like Cluedo.

How we choose and check

We pick games for the situation, and ignore hobby rankings and hype. Player counts, ages and play times come from the publisher's own page or the box. If we can't confirm a detail there, we leave it off the card. The teaching rating is our own view from reading the rules, not a publisher figure. Nobody pays us to include a game. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. See how we make money.