Creature is a very love/hate machine I have found. Like tamoore said the rules themselves are basic, but it is a very frustrating game if you're just getting into it.
Family friendly I would say Spimermande`. I think there's more going on to excite a larger audience; long playing, not super hard to make a lot of things happen etc etc. For god sakes the snack bar shot it enough to make you go postal sometimes and I've been playing it for 20+ years!