CHOICE: GAME ON

It's time to bin the Super Marios and dust down the Monopoly as the retro resurrection of board games has reached an all-time high. A turnout of 15,000 is expected at Highclere Castle in Berkshire tomorrow for the Family Games Festival. Backed by games giants Hasbro UK, the festival - the first of its kind - will see all proceeds going to charity, and aims to prove that computers are out and boards are in. The centrepiece of the festival is a giant Jenga game, where players sporting compulsory hard hats must prevent the skyscraper from toppling while removing bricks from the bottom and balancing them on the top. For die-hard Jenga addicts, there will also be a Guinness Book of Records competition at high noon with a more wieldy game. Other amusements include a full-scale game of Cluedo, five-a-side football, Twister, Gladiator-jousting and the obligatory bouncy castles.

While parents plunder the toy cupboard for interactive entertainment, board games are enjoying an equally enthusiastic resurgence in the club world. By night, twentysomethings are transforming themselves into lounge lizards, tapping their feet to Engelbert Humperdinck and flipping their tiddlywinks, all in the name of kitsch. Even the Ministry of Sound has joined in and set up board-game chill-out areas.

If you need to know what's hot and what's not - in the world of board games, Jenga is the top-selling family game with Monopoly, Frustration, Scrabble and Connect Four hot on its heels. Proof that there is life without Mega-Drive.

Highclere Castle, Highclere Estate, nr Newbury, Berks (info: 01635 253210) Sun, 11am-4pm Admn: voluntary donations to Macmillan Cancer Relief Fiona Sturges