A tense, funny cooperative game our children wanted to play every night of our caravan holiday. Too big for a flight, but brilliant when you have the space.
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Around 30 minutes per mission, with a 66-mission campaign that gives many hours of play.
2
5
2
Families with older children, caravan and self-catering holidays, evenings, cooperative games
Not suitable for a plane. It needs a 46 × 22 cm board plus space for each player's wire stand, and the large box makes it a better choice for car-based holidays.
Not suitable outdoors. Wind could knock over the upright wire tiles and reveal your hidden wires to the other players.
Our 10-year-old and 13-year-old loved it and wanted to play every night of our caravan holiday instead of going to the on-site entertainment.
27
27
1000
Large
A large 27 × 27 cm box weighing around 1 kg. The board and wire stands are needed to play, so you can't leave the box behind. Best for car-based holidays where luggage space isn't tight.
Yes — if you've got the space to pack it and a table to play it on.
We took Bomb Busters on a week-long caravan holiday and it was a huge hit. Our 10-year-old and 13-year-old loved it so much that they wanted to play it every night instead of going to the on-site entertainment. That's about the strongest recommendation a holiday game can get in our family.
It's not a small game, though. The box is around 27 × 27 cm and weighs about 1 kg, so it's one for holidays where luggage space isn't tight.
Bomb Busters is a cooperative game, so everyone is on the same team trying to defuse a bomb together.
Each player has a stand of numbered wire tiles that only they can see. Working together, you try to work out which wires your teammates are holding and cut the right ones. Get it right and you're one step closer to defusing the bomb. Get it wrong and things start to go badly — and cutting a red wire means it's game over.
The result is a game that's very fun and creates a lot of tension. There are some genuinely nervous moments when someone hovers over a wire trying to decide whether to cut it.
We've given it a 2/5 complexity rating. The basic idea is easy to pick up, and the difficulty comes from the deduction rather than complicated rules.
It's also worth knowing that Bomb Busters won the Spiel des Jahres (German Game of the Year) in 2025, one of the best-known awards in board gaming.
Individual missions take around 30 minutes.
But the real strength is the campaign. There are 66 missions, each one getting a little harder and adding something new, plus several sealed surprise boxes that bring in new rules and components as you progress.
That gives you many hours of play, and it's what kept our children coming back every evening. There was always the next mission to try.
Very good, in our experience.
Our 10-year-old and 13-year-old both played it comfortably and enjoyed it enormously. The publisher recommends it for ages 10 and up, which matches what we found.
It works well as a family game because everyone is on the same side. Nobody gets knocked out or left behind, and the whole table celebrates (or groans) together when a wire is cut.
No.
The game uses a 46 × 22 cm board, and each player also needs space in front of them for their wire stand. That's far more room than an aircraft tray table gives you.
We also wouldn't necessarily take it on a holiday where we're flying, simply because of the size of the box. It's much better suited to car-based holidays such as caravans, cottages and self-catering stays, where luggage space isn't as limited.
We wouldn't.
The wire tiles stand upright, and a gust of wind could easily knock them over and reveal your hidden wires to everyone else, which would ruin the game.
It's best played indoors at a table. If you want something for outside, Hive Pocket is a much safer choice.
This is Bomb Busters' biggest drawback as a travel game.
At around 27 × 27 cm and 1 kg, it's one of the larger and heavier games we've taken away. You also need the board and stands to play, so it isn't a game where you can leave the box at home and just take a deck of cards.
For a caravan holiday, it was no problem at all. For a flight with a strict baggage allowance, we'd probably leave it at home and take something smaller like The Crew: Mission Deep Sea instead.
Families with children aged around 10 and over, and anyone who enjoys cooperative games.
It's ideal for holidays where you'll be spending evenings together around a table, particularly caravan, lodge and self-catering holidays.
It plays with 2 to 5 players, but we think it's at its best with a family-sized group around the table.
Bomb Busters is a brilliant holiday game, and we'd give it 5/5 if you have the space to play it.
It's tense, funny, easy to learn and has a campaign that will keep you busy for the whole holiday and beyond.
The size and weight mean it isn't one for every trip. But when we've got the car packed for a caravan or cottage holiday, it's one of the first games we'd want to bring.
Any game that persuades our children to skip the evening entertainment so they can play one more mission has more than earned its place in the boot.
Not suitable for a plane. It needs a 46 × 22 cm board plus space for each player's wire stand, and the large box makes it a better choice for car-based holidays.
Not suitable outdoors. Wind could knock over the upright wire tiles and reveal your hidden wires to the other players.
Our 10-year-old and 13-year-old loved it and wanted to play every night of our caravan holiday instead of going to the on-site entertainment.
Bomb Busters
Bomb Busters
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