Drinking party crowd-pleasers: party and banquet games
A lot of people are probably thinking about simple games to play at banquets, right?
Whether it’s a wedding after-party, a New Year’s party, a year-end party, or a welcome/farewell party, having a game that helps everyone bond and adds a touch of flair to the event makes it more fun.
That said, it can be hard to choose a game for a banquet with multiple participants, since there are so many considerations, don’t you think?
So in this article, we’ll introduce banquet games you can enjoy in a variety of situations!
We’ve picked out a wide range—from timeless classics to slightly unique games—so please use this as a reference.
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Drinking-Party Hits: Banquet and Party Games (21–30)
Ping-Pong Ball Blowing Game
Put many ping-pong balls in a bowl and blow on them to expel them out of the bowl.
The more ping-pong balls there are, the harder it gets and the more lung capacity you’ll need.
I think it’ll be more exciting if you set a penalty game for the loser.
Pose Matching Game
This is a game where you try to strike the same pose in response to a given prompt.
For example, if the prompt is “What comes to mind when you hear swimming?”, you express swimming with a gesture—but is it breaststroke, freestyle, or butterfly? If your poses match, you get it right.
Body Clock Game
Let’s play the “internal body clock game,” which feels amazing when you nail it! Start a stopwatch and, without looking at the screen, stop it when you think the target time has passed.
Around 10 seconds is easy, but 1 minute or 3 minutes gets pretty tough.
If you go over, you’re out—compete to see how close you can get to the target time without exceeding it.
after-the-fact rock-paper-scissors
We’ll play rock-paper-scissors where you choose after seeing what the caller says.
If they say “lose,” you throw your hand after them so that you lose.
If they say “win” or “tie,” you do the same accordingly.
It sounds simple, but it can be quite hard when the pace is fast.
The last person remaining wins.
Guess the price of the dish
The popular segment on the variety show Gurutete Ninety-Nine, Gourmet Chicken Race: Gochi ni Naru! In that game where you order dishes without knowing their prices and try to hit the exact preset total, how about trying a “guess the price of the dish” game at a drinking party? In the original Gochi, the person who ends up farthest from the target amount pays for everyone’s meal out of pocket, but since this is a fun get-together, it’s better to keep it simple as a quiz to guess the prices.
That said… if it’s a group of really close friends, going full-on Gochi is definitely an option.
One-stroke drawing game
Can you all draw pictures in a single stroke? Even for shapes you can instantly visualize—like a soccer ball, an umbrella, or a car—drawing them in one continuous line is surprisingly difficult.
So why not turn this into a game to liven up a party? You could have people draw the assigned prompt in a single stroke within a time limit, with the best result winning, or try a single-stroke illustration version of the telephone game.
The drawings come out more unique than if you drew them normally, so it’s sure to lighten the mood!
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!