While my list of the best board games of 2008 was top-heavy with cooperative games, this year's list includes just one of that genre. But the games included here are just as fun as those from last year, as players hunt for treasure, create civilizations, run an automobile manufacturer, race ostriches, catch Jack the Ripper, and much more. Here are my picks for the Top 10 Board Games of 2009.

^{Image courtesy of Rio Grande Games}

Imagine if Sid Sackson's classic game, Can't Stop, actually had a theme... and the theme was polar bear cubs covered in paint (from helping the Inuits paint their igloos) trying to get across the ice floes to the bathtub so they can be the first to get cleaned up. OK, you can stop imagining -- that's Daddy Cool in a nutshell. And in his review of Daddy Cool, Mark Jackson says the game reaches "the edge of kid-gaming perfection."

More Children's Game Reviews:

• Chateau Roquefort
• Midnight Party
• Children's Game Reviews - Index

^{Image courtesy of Huch & Friends}

Mark Jackson has owned a number of games with large boards. But he says that nothing compares nothing to the beautiful and massive roll-out seascape that greets you each time you open the huge box that contains Pirates on the High Seas. In his review of Pirates on the High Seas, Mark says this board game is "a whole treasure chest full of fun."

More Children's Game Reviews:

• Dish It Up!
• Giro Galoppo
• Children's Game Reviews - Index

^{Photo © Erik Arneson}

In The Secret Door, a cooperative children's board game, all of the players work together to stop a gang of thieves from stealing various items. It plays quickly (about 15 minutes per game), it works for children as young as four years old, and Mark Jackson says in his review of The Secret Door that it "creates a playing experience that my kids ask for over and over again."

More Children's Game Reviews:

• Duck Duck Bruce
• Pop Belly
• Children's Game Reviews - Index

^{Image courtesy of Family Pastimes}