Let's play games.

• Position: What's new? Toys galore & more

Games that most family members can enjoy laying together have long-lasting appeal. This season's crop includes a few golden oldies in spruced-up guise, along with some new faces on traditional approaches, with enough variety to differentiate them from their predecessors. Among the latter, a basic of board games has always been to get from point A to point B, whether by skill, the luck of a throw of dice or the spin of a wheel, a display of knowledge, or any combination thereof. Cases in point are a pair of Holigames LLC., Tucson, Ariz. Holiday U S.A.--The Game of American Holidays ($24.95), as redundantly indicated by its name, requires a knowledge of holidays and other special times as players traverse a calendarlike board from New Year's Day to the following New Year's Eve, encountering en route such stops as Super Bowl Sunday. Groundhog Day, a summer picnic, the first day of school, and pausing to rake autumn leaves. Trivia questions are pitched at age levels ranging from kids to senior citizens, so all can play with an equal chance.

Exodus, The Game of Passover ($24.95), on the other hand, is aimed primarily at a Jewish audience, with players striving to escape from Pharaoh's Egypt and make it to the Promised Land, crossing the Red Sea, stopping at Mt. Sinai to wait for the Ten Commandments, and trying to avoid the Wheel of Plagues and its various unpleasant consequences. Knowledge of the history of Passover and its traditions aids in moving around the board.

A cross between the classic games of Chutes and Ladders and Candyland, Zoofari ($17.95) from Games to Remember, Cumming, Ga., makes players navigate through numerous jungle hazards, such as the snake pit, an elephant stampede, a confrontation with a wild hippo, and past the "scary thing in the dark" while visiting Frog Swamp and Lion Country on the way to...