✓ Players Up to 4

✓ Price $79.99 (was $89.99)

✓ Setup Under 30 seconds

✓ Screen None

✓ Games To 11, 5 to 8 min

✓ Guarantee Lifetime

Tuesday, about ten minutes after dinner. Dishes in the sink, both kids sprawled on the couch with their phones, and me pretending to read email. I set the Pepper Pong bag on the kitchen table, unfolded the net across the middle and laid out four paddles. Within a minute everyone had one. We played until bedtime, then lost another fifteen minutes negotiating one more game.

The Full Set packs into an 11-inch bag that weighs 1.8 lb: four foam-faced paddles, the folding net and three foam balls. The balls are the clever part. Jalapeño is slow and forgiving, Habanero sits in the middle for long rallies, and Ghost Pepper is firm and fast for whoever thinks they're the house champion. Games go to 11, win by 2. One game takes 5 to 8 minutes, which is short enough that somebody always asks for another. Setup is under 30 seconds and there's nothing to put together.

With younger players we start on the Jalapeño ball, and the rallies get long fast. It's quiet, too. The ball and the paddle faces are foam, so a game at 8:30 on a school night is fine, even in an apartment, and they won't scratch or dent the table. When the grandparents visit, they pick up a paddle and join the same rally on the slow ball. Buyers in the 358 reviews say the same: grandparents playing with their grandkids, and a family of six calling it the most fun night they'd had.

You need at least two people, so it won't entertain one kid alone on a rainy Saturday. It's also a rally game, with longer rallies and fewer smashes, so anyone who plays serious ping pong and lives for the smash should know that going in. The set is $79.99 on sale (regular $89.99), with a 60-day money-back guarantee and a lifetime guarantee, and in-stock orders ship in 2 to 3 business days.

✓ Players 4 (2 vs 2)

✓ Price $74.99

✓ Plays Grass, sand, indoors

✓ Screen None

✓ Weight About 3 lb

✓ Rating 4.6 (17,396)

The first warm weekend we owned Spikeball, we stayed out on the lawn until it got too dark to see the ball. I can't say that about much else in our house.

This is the original roundnet set, from the company behind the sport. A small round net, a bit like a mini trampoline, stands on 5 legs, and two teams of two smack a ball down onto it, volleyball style. Each side gets up to 3 alternating touches. There are no sides or boundaries, so play goes a full 360 degrees around the net. The drawstring bag holds 5 legs, 5 rim pieces, the net, 3 balls and a rule book, about 3 lb in all, and nothing in it needs batteries or a screen.

Ours goes to the beach and to cookouts, and it comes out in the backyard most weekends. It's 2 vs 2, and before the first point you pick a target of 11, 15 or 21, win by 2. Whoever is sitting out keeps score and heckles. If only two of you want to play, there's a 1 vs 1 version, and it works on sand or indoors when you have the room.

The catch is people and space. The real game needs four players and open space all the way around the net, because everyone runs and dives for saves. It's very physical, and it suits teens and adults best. Little kids and grandparents can join through the easier variations Spikeball publishes, like catch-and-throw. If you have four people who like to run and a lawn or a beach nearby, it's the best pick here for getting everyone outside together. It's $74.99 from Spikeball (about $69.99 on Amazon), and 17,396 Amazon ratings average 4.6 out of 5.

Where Pepper Pong Differs

Pepper Pong plays at the table you just ate dinner on. The bag has 4 paddles, so kids and grandparents end up on the same rally, and it goes from bag to game in under 30 seconds. The foam balls are quiet, they won't mark the table, and the set is $79.99. Spikeball burns more energy outdoors, and it still goes to the beach with us. Pepper Pong gets played on Tuesday nights after dinner.

✓ Players Varies by game

✓ Price $499.99 (no game)

✓ Controllers 2 Joy-Con 2

✓ Screen 7.9" + TV

✓ Battery 2 to 6.5 hrs

✓ Online From $19.99 / yr

On a Saturday afternoon, a Mario Kart race on the TV gets the whole couch yelling and laughing. The Switch 2 is $499.99 with no game included. In the box you get the console, the dock and two Joy-Con 2 controllers, plus the grip, cables and straps. It plays handheld on its 7.9-inch screen, on a tabletop with its stand, or on the TV through the dock.

Playing together in one room is where it earns its place. Mario Kart World ($79.99) runs 1 to 4 players on one console, so once you have enough controllers, the whole family races at once. The library is huge, with far more variety than anything else on this page, and a kid can happily play it alone. The free parental controls app is good, too: set a daily time limit and it can suspend the game automatically when time is up.

Then the costs pile on. New Switch 2 games list at $59.99 to $79.99. With two Joy-Con 2 in the box, four players need a second pair at $99.99. Online play needs Nintendo Switch Online, from $19.99 a year. For four of us to race Mario Kart World, that's $499.99 plus $99.99 plus $79.99, or $679.97, before any online plan.

That's the catch for this page. It's a screen, and getting four players and a game costs well over $600. The time limits also do nothing until a parent sets them up. If your kids already love video games and you want to be in the race with them, this is the console to get. If you're trying to cut screens on weeknights, it adds one.

Where Pepper Pong Differs

Pepper Pong costs $79.99 for the whole set, and the 4 paddles in the bag mean four people play the day it arrives. There's no screen and nothing to charge, and it's on the kitchen table in under 30 seconds. You give up the Switch's huge library and solo play to get that.

✓ Players 2 to 4

✓ Price $169.99 (was $209.99)

✓ Ages 8+

✓ Range 150 ft

✓ Power Rechargeable

✓ Rating 4.6 (6,212)

Squad Hero Laser Tag is the most physical pick on this list, and the only one that had me crouched behind a patio chair at 9 pm while a kid hunted me with a flashlight. It's a rechargeable laser tag set for 2 to 4 players, and you can add more Squad Hero sets later if the neighbors want in.

In the box you get 4 infrared blasters, 4 vests (a chest unit plus a back target) and a charging dock with its adapter. Everything is infrared, so nothing flies out of the blaster and there's nothing to pick up off the lawn afterward. Hits count on 3 zones (chest, back and the blaster itself), and small LCD screens on the gear track lives and ammo. You don't need a phone or an app to run it.

Most of our rounds were parents against kids in the backyard. Once it got dark, the flashlight and stealth mode came out, and those night rounds were the ones everyone begged to replay. On a rainy evening the basement worked too. The LCDs ended every who-hit-who argument, because the gear either counted the hit or it didn't. You can set the number of lives and pick from 4 weapon modes.

The price stings: $169.99 (list $209.99), more than double what Pepper Pong costs. Everything charges on the one dock, and a charge lasts about 8 games of roughly 30 minutes, so somebody has to remember to plug it in. Some reviewers report a blaster that won't power on or a dock that stops charging. You also switch each unit off and back on between rounds to reset it, and you need open space plus a fairly direct line of sight to land a hit. It's a run-around game for the yard or the basement.

The box says ages 8+. It suits kids who need to run after a day at school, and parents willing to get a little out of breath with them. If your family likes to stay seated after dinner, it will mostly live in the closet.

Where Pepper Pong Differs

Pepper Pong comes out at the table right after dinner. There's nothing to charge, and it's playing in under 30 seconds on a table you already own. It costs $79.99, and up to 4 people play at once. Laser tag burns off far more energy, so on a dry Saturday we'd still grab Squad Hero.

✓ Pieces 790

✓ Price $59.99

✓ Ages 4 to 99

✓ Screen None

✓ Set #10698

✓ Rating 4.8 (24)

I'd hand the LEGO Classic Large Creative Brick Box 10698 to a kid who wants to play alone, and it's the calmest pick of the five. It's $59.99 for 790 pieces in 33 colors, and the box says ages 4 to 99. There's nothing to charge and no screen involved. You tip the bricks onto the table and people start building.

It all comes in a plastic storage box, which you'll appreciate the first time you clean up. Inside are windows, doors, wheels and tires, 2 green baseplates, and printed build ideas for when nobody knows where to start. LEGO also has free building instructions as PDFs. We mostly ignored both and made whatever we felt like. One evening a teenager and a little sibling built next to a parent at the same table, each on their own thing, and the room went quiet in a good way. Nobody waited for a turn, so nobody sulked about it.

The tradeoff is that there's no game in the box. No one keeps score or wins, so you never get the rematch begging that keeps everyone at the table. Bricks also travel. Some will end up under the couch, and one will find a bare foot. The pieces are small, too, so very little kids need an adult close by; the box starts at 4 for a reason.

I'd pick it for a family that likes calm, side-by-side time, or for a kid who'll build alone after school. Families who want trash talk and a winner should look higher up this list.

Where Pepper Pong Differs

Pepper Pong has the part LEGO leaves out. Games go to 11, win by 2, and hardly anyone stops at one. Up to 4 people play at once on the table you already have, for $79.99. LEGO is calmer and works for one kid on their own, which Pepper Pong can't do, since it needs at least two players.