Party-Pumping Games and Party Games for Banquets [2026]
At year-end and New Year parties and other banquets, you don’t just want to eat and drink—you want to liven things up with fun games too.
But when it’s time to actually play, it’s easy to wonder, “What games are good?” or “Which games can everyone enjoy together?”
So in this article, we’ll introduce fun games that will get any party going.
We’ve gathered a variety of options, from simple games you can start right away to popular board games.
Let’s have a great time together, regardless of age!
- Party games collection that get everyone excited in a big group
- Simple mini-games that liven up a party
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Party-Boosting Games for Banquets: Party Games [2026] (21–30)
Memory game
The memory game is similar to a memory-based shiritori.
Participants take turns naming one sheet of construction paper from those set on the table, each a different color.
However, when responding, they must recite all previously named colors starting from the first one.
In other words, if the first player names “blue,” the second player points to the blue sheet before naming another color.
As the game progresses, the list of colors grows, putting everyone’s memory to the test.
Anyone who gets the order wrong is out, and the person who continues without making a mistake until the end wins.
You can enjoy this game with items other than construction paper as well—try using mementos or photos of the participants.
Where is this? Quiz
Let’s try a “Where is this?” quiz using photos.
It’s a game where you guess the location from pictures alone, but even if you’ve been there before, the name doesn’t always come to mind, so it can be surprisingly hard to answer.
If you’re doing it at a graduation party or thank-you banquet, it’s a great idea to pick places and photos that everyone shares memories of, like field trip spots or school trip destinations.
Just projecting funny photos with classmates on a screen will liven things up, and having prizes ready for the quiz winners will make it even more fun.
Pedometer Game
It’s a game where you attach a pedometer somewhere on your body and move around, and the person with the highest count within the time limit wins.
Pedometers normally count the number of steps you take, but since you can’t actually walk in the game, you’ll need to march in place or move your body to rack up more counts.
How you move will change depending on where you attach the pedometer, so if everyone places it in different spots, each person’s movements will have their own flair—and that should make it more entertaining for the spectators, too.
A game where you guess someone from a part of their face
It’s a game where you show a photo of a body part and have people guess who it is.
It seems like it tests how much you usually look at and know about that person.
The photos can be of celebrities or participants at a graduation party—both are fine! It’s best to take and present parts like the mouth, eyes, or eyebrows—features that seem recognizable but aren’t too obvious.
However, if the pool of possible answers is too broad, no one will get it right, so be sure to give hints that narrow it down.
Picking unexpected people—like a teacher or a historical figure—could also make the game more exciting.
Tasting Game
Kirin, Asahi, Suntory—just hearing those names is irresistible to beer lovers, right? So instead of a sake tasting, how about a beer tasting or even a juice tasting competition to liven things up? Even the same orange juice can taste subtly different depending on the brand.
And that canned coffee you sip without thinking—if you taste it seriously, you’ll find it’s completely different from others.
At a party with lots of dishes, you could even do blindfolded tastings and try to guess the foods—that’s sure to get everyone excited.
If you usually act like a gourmet, make sure not to show any uncool moments!
Ability game
Each person is given a specific ability, such as ‘stopping time,’ ‘making someone keep a straight face,’ or ‘making someone angry.’ If an ability is used on someone during the conversation, that person must react appropriately.
It’s challenging, but it’s a game that’s fun to both play and watch.
Ogiri Staring Contest
It’s a game that combines an ogiri-style wordplay contest that makes people laugh with a “don’t laugh” staring match.
Players write their answers to a prompt on slips, then take turns presenting them as first and second mover.
If you laugh at your opponent’s answer, you lose.
You can switch to a new prompt after each round, but if you keep responding to the same prompt, your opponent’s previous answer can set up a payoff and make things more exciting.
Sometimes you might even come up with an answer so good it impresses you—just be careful not to make yourself laugh in those moments.
Quiz using puzzles
How about a fresh, new kind of game that combines puzzles and quizzes? Write the quiz questions on a white jigsaw puzzle with a marker and have your guests put it together.
Once the puzzle is completed, they answer the quiz.
The team that answers first wins! Just be careful not to use too many pieces—it should be solvable in a few minutes.
It’s simple, easy to understand, and guaranteed to get everyone excited, so give it a try.
It’s sure to help everyone have a great time together!
Weight Guessing Game
How about a weight-guessing game that anyone can enjoy, regardless of age or gender? The rules are very simple: lift two items and guess which one is heavier.
The subjects can be people, everyday items like a smartphone or a roll of toilet paper, or heavier things like dumbbells.
It’s also fun to pick similar items, such as a hard baseball and a rubber baseball.
It might seem easy at first glance, but it’s surprisingly tricky.
You’ll be saying, “I didn’t realize it was this heavy!”—and the unexpected answers are sure to liven things up.
100-character shiritori
This is a cooperative game that uses the mechanics of shiritori, where players keep a rally of words going, aiming together for a specified character count.
While shiritori is often associated with short words, here each player presents a long sentence based on their own ideas, and when everyone’s rally is finished, the total length is adjusted to 100 characters.
Each player has a 10-second time limit, so the key is whether you can come up with the longest possible sentence within that time.
If you focus too much on sentence length, you might miss the final “n,” so be mindful of that as you play.