Party Games That Spice Up Your House Drinks Night
A house party where everyone gets together to drink at a friend’s place.
You gather with close friends, catching up on recent events, sharing happy and sad stories, venting about this and that—the conversation never seems to end, right?
But sometimes, it suddenly feels like time has stopped…
At times like that, how about playing a quick game to change up the mood?
In this article, we’ll introduce some lively games that are perfect for house parties.
They’re all games that are fun and exciting even with a small group, so give them a try!
- [From small to large groups] Drinking games recommended for college students
- Games for two people to enjoy. A roundup of party games that liven up drinking gatherings.
- Punishment games that liven up drinking parties and banquets
- Recommended for college students! Punishment game ideas that will make everyone laugh and hype things up
- Punishment games that hype up a group date
- Get the party started! A roundup of perfect playing card games for drinking parties
- A party game that gets everyone excited at home. A fun recreational game.
- Simple but intense! A quick-and-easy penalty game that hypes everyone up
- A fun penalty game recommended for men
- Drinking party crowd-pleasers: party and banquet games
- For Couples: Fun and Exciting Punishment Game Ideas
- [Punishment Game] A collection of romance-themed prompts. Punishment games that get men and women excited
- A fun punishment game recommended for women
Top 10 Party Games to Liven Up Your At-Home Drinking Session
Yamanote Line game
Let’s liven things up with a classic party drinking game: the Yamanote Line Game! It originally involves naming stations on the Yamanote Line, and a common variation is to go around in order answering to a given theme without breaking the rhythm.
The themes are endless, right? Game titles, animal names, dessert names—you can pick topics with tons of answers that could go on forever, or more niche ones like university names or baseball players.
All of them are great fun!
Spinach game
A game famous among younger generations: the Spinach Game.
You might wonder, “Why spinach?”—but anyway, the rules are very simple.
The starting player makes a fist to show they’re holding spinach.
At first, they have two spinaches, and while saying “spinach, spinach, spinach,” they first tap their own chest with their fist, then pass the spinach to two other people on the next two beats.
Someone who receives it says “spinach, spinach,” first tapping their own chest once, then passing the next spinach to someone else.
It’s a rhythm game where two spinaches keep circulating, and as it heats up, it becomes easy to get confused.
Bamboo Shoot Gnocchi
A classic recreation game that gets everyone from kids to adults excited, “Takenoko Nyokki” originated from a variety TV show.
Players call out numbers—“1 nyokki,” “2 nyokki,” and so on—and anyone who says a unique number without overlapping with someone else is safe and drops out of the round.
If you overlap with someone or end up being the last one remaining, you lose.
It’s a bit of a psychological game—especially with a small group, where you look your opponents in the eye and try to read their minds—and it becomes harder to drop out successfully.
It’s a perfect example of a game that needs no equipment, can start right away, and still gets people hyped.
House Party Hits: Recommended Drinking Games (11–20)
Food Russian roulette
A classic party game that’s always been popular is the food version of Russian roulette, where only one piece is the “hit.” For example, bite-sized cream puffs with just one filled with wasabi, or a delicious-looking pizza with a single slice doused in hellishly hot sauce—foods that look tasty at first glance but have a hidden “jackpot,” or rather, a booby trap mixed in.
If you’re the one who gets it, are you lucky or unlucky? These days, there are even party snacks that come pre-mixed with spicy pieces, so give them a try.
Whose hand is this?
A no-equipment, light, on-the-spot party game you can play while drinking: “Whose Hand Is This?” One person closes their eyes, and someone else touches them—like having their hand felt, their back gently stroked, or their head massaged—so the guesser can’t tell who’s doing the touching.
The goal is to guess whose hand it is.
Even if someone’s hands have distinctive features, things like massages from behind should make it harder.
The person doing the touching shouldn’t speak.
Who knows—someone with an unusual talent might show up and guess them all correctly!
No-Katakana Game
It’s a very simple thing—just not using words written in katakana—yet for some reason this game gets everyone excited.
You often see it on TV variety shows, too.
The rule is to keep the conversation going while completely banning any “katakana words,” including English loanwords and wasei-eigo.
But there are far more katakana words in our everyday speech than we realize, so they just slip out.
And even when they don’t, converting them into purely Japanese expressions makes the conversation sound oddly formal, and that awkwardness is so funny that you can’t help but laugh—that’s the charm of the game.
The Game of Life
The Game of Life is the gold standard of board games that almost everyone has played at least once, right? Many of you probably played it countless times as kids and even had a copy at home.
Did you know there are now many different versions of The Game of Life? In Japan, the first edition was released in 1968, and since 1989 a new series has come out every year.
Collaborations with famous anime and other franchises are also popular.
If someone has one at a house party, it’s sure to spark some nostalgic fun!