Your Amazon Alexa smart speaker isn’t just for weather updates and playlists. It also offers a selection of fun games to keep the whole family entertained.
“Alexa, I Want to Play a Game”
Anybody with an Alexa smart speaker knows how useful it can be for household management, from weather updates to calendar reminders, and timers to smart home integrations. But why stop there? All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, and Alexa knows this only too well. By utilizing Alexa skills, you have access to a library of fun games to liven up a dreary day.
We’ve hand-picked 10 of the best to get you started.
1 The Magic Door
The Magic Door is an interactive story-based adventure game where your choices determine the outcome. During this adventure, players are tasked with finding various hidden items as they explore a magical land full of puzzles and riddles.
Along the way, you’ll explore fantastical forests, gardens, oceans, and castles, and encounter magical creatures in need of your help. At various points in the story, you’ll need to tell Alexa which choices to make to advance the narrative. Each storyline takes approximately 10 minutes to complete, and there are 10 stories in total for you to choose from.
Each story features original character voices and hundreds of sound effects, to immerse you in each adventure. The Magic Door is a great free game to keep the kids entertained on a rainy afternoon and to spark their imaginations.
To start a game, just say, “Alexa, open the Magic Door” and your journey will begin.
2 Escape The Room
Escape rooms are big business these days, and Escape The Room is an Alexa-enabled version of this winning formula. In this game, you have the chance to ‘escape’ various virtual rooms, such as jail cells, offices, garages, and even spaceships. Explore your surroundings, use items, and solve puzzles to break free.
Instruct Alexa to look around the room, inspect objects, and experiment with items to help you complete each challenge. Alexa can provide you with contextual hints if you get stuck, and can repeat these on command. You can check your item inventory at any time, and ask for a recap of your progress as and when you need it.
Each room gets progressively more difficult, with increasingly devious puzzles to solve, and larger areas to explore (some with multiple floors). And if you get stuck, you can find plenty of hints and walkthroughs to help you out at stokedskills.com (no spoilers here, though).
To play, say “Alexa open Escape the Room.”
3 Bingo
Eyes down for a full house, and let Alexa be your personal Bingo caller. In the smart speaker version of this classic game, Alexa calls out the numbers for you. Each number is repeated and sent to the Alexa app as well.
You’ll need your own Bingo cards to play, but if you don’t have any, you can download some for free from the Skills link at lovemyecho.com.
You’ll get PDF bingo cards and instructions on how to play, for the uninitiated. During the game, you can say “Call the next number” when you’re ready for it, and shout “Bingo” when someone wins. You have the option to play multiple rounds, and can simply say “Game Over” when you want Alexa to stop.
Bring the Bingo hall to you for a fun family game night, with all the clickety clicks, legs elevens, and dancing queens you can handle.
To play, say ”Alexa, open Bingo.”
4 Song Quiz
Featuring some of the most popular artists and songs from the last 60 years, Alexa’s Song Quiz will put your musical knowledge to the test. Challenge friends and family, or go head-to-head with competitors from across the country in a series of trivia-based rounds, and score points when you guess the correct artists and song title.
With musical hits from the 60s to the noughties, there’s something for everyone here, from classic rock and pop to country music and rap. There’s an optional subscription service that unlocks thousands of additional songs and playlists, but there’s plenty of content in the core game if you don’t fancy shelling out for the extra tunes.
To play, say ”Alexa, start Song Quiz.”
5 Jeopardy!
Jeopardy! is Alexa’s version of the classic TV quiz show, where contestants are given general knowledge clues in order to identify a specific person, place, or object. Players must phrase their answers in the form of a question to suss out their mystery subject, across a series of topics that includes pop culture, travel, world history, and more.
For some added authenticity, this Alexa-based version of the game even features the voice of Mayim Balik, who hosted the TV quiz until 2023. For super fans, there’s an optional subscription service, which provides access to weekly events, games, and additional categories to test your mettle.
To get started, just ask Alexa to “open Jeopardy!”
6 Would You Rather
Everyone loves a hypothetical dilemma, and Would You Rather perfectly encapsulates this concept. It’s an ideal icebreaker to liven up a dull dinner party or to spice up a family gathering.
Have you ever wondered if your significant other would rather sweat melted cheese or always smell like a skunk? Well, now you can find out.
“Would You Rather” poses some interesting conundrums for your nearest and dearest, as well as those friends you’ve yet to make. Often hilarious, always ridiculous, this is a fun getting-to-know-you game suitable for all ages.
To play, just say ”Alexa, play Would You Rather.”
7 Freeze Dancers
If you have energetic small people in your house and are looking for ways to help them burn off some of that energy, Freeze Dancers could be the game for you. This interactive, music-led game sees kids busting their best dance moves until the music stops, and they have to freeze on the spot, as still as a statue.
If someone moves after Alexa says “freeze” they’re out of the game. Each game continues until the last child is standing. This simple game is a free and fun way to get the kids moving and can be played at any time. Ideal for wet weather play, and perfect for children’s parties, Freeze Dancers will have them dancing until they drop.
Get dancing by saying “Alexa, open Freeze Dancers.”
8 St. Noir
St. Noir is an Alexa-led murder mystery game, where players take on the role of detective, as they gather clues and question suspects to figure out whodunnit. The killer’s identity is randomized in every game to keep things fresh and all players guessing.
You’ll need to keep your wits about you as you play, as not all of the suspects will give you truthful answers. You’ll need to look carefully for any inconsistencies in their answers and conduct thorough investigations of every location to uncover the truth and successfully identify the culprit.
St. Noir is intended for mature audiences, so this one is for adults only. Murder mystery fans are bound to lap this one up, taking on the role of super sleuth, as they try to solve the case before the killer strikes again.
Get solving by saying ”Alexa, open Saint Noir.”
9 Wordplay
Budding wordsmiths will enjoy the gameshow-style experience of playing Wordplay on their Alexa speakers. This word nerd quiz tasks you with solving hidden letter puzzles to uncover as many words as possible before you run out of lives. Alexa will provide you with only one or two letters from each word, and it’s up to you to fill in the blanks and guess the hidden word.
It starts off simply, but the difficulty soon ramps up, with longer and more challenging word puzzles to solve. There’s a multiplayer mode for more confident players, where you can pit your skills against friends and family, and try to place yourself on the world Wordplay leaderboard. Plus, you can use in-game power-ups such as Vowel Volcano (which instantly displays all the vowels in a word) if you’re struggling.
Alexa stores all your previous guesses on the Alexa app, and you can ask it for more time if you’re having trouble with the current word. Simple and addictive, Wordplay is a great mini-game for expanding your vocabulary.
Start playing by saying ”Alexa open Word Play.”
10 Sesame Street
Kids can spend time with their favorite furry red friend Elmo by playing Sesame Street via Amazon Alexa. Here, Elmo has a bunch of fun games like Hide & Seek, word games, and letter-of-the-day facts to delight his young fans, and the game even features the authentic voice of this beloved Sesame Street character.
Sesame Street with Elmo is a fun and educational way for younger children to get more out of their Alexa speaker.
Start playing by saying ”Alexa, open Sesame Street.”
With Google Home having disabled these types of games and features in 2023, Amazon Alexa is currently the only platform that offers voice-activated games. It’s a neat addition to Alexa’s arsenal of features, and its library is expanding and evolving all the time.
Worried you might not be putting your Amazon assistant to great use? Here are 21 things you didn’t know Alexa could do.
