Family Game Night 2 Review [Wii]

05 Jan 2010 at 13:48:24 by
Systems used to review this title: (WII)

I spent this Christmas playing board games, real and virtual, and Hasbro's offering in the way of Family Game Night 2, was played. A lot. In fact, too much.

EA has taken Hasbro games under its wing, and over the last few years released some classic board games in digital format and ranging from Battleships to Monopoly. But really how impressive are the games in digital form, and have they been tweaked to make them more engaging on the platforms on which they're released?

Let's look at the games on offer first: Operation, Jenga, Connect 4, Pictureka and Bop It. There's also the opportunity to mess up Mr. Potato Head's face by unlocking more face pieces as you progress through the game.

Now before we get too excited, try to go back to the first time you played any of these games. With all but Pictureka, half the fun was with the physical aspect of the game. Operation was exciting because you're hands would tremble as you tried to pull out offending pieces from the patient's body; Jenga's charm was in stacking an pulling away blocks in the hope the tower would stay put; Connect 4 was all about hearing the "whoosh" of the plastic coins, the clink when they landed in their spot and the "splash" of the coins when you released them at the bottom. Even Mr. Potato Head is more fun in real life, despite being animated in this game. Pictureka is probably the only game out of the lot that offers fun and dynamic gameplay, but even with that it's not enough.

Operation is the first to come under scrutiny, and I must admit I was very much looking forward to playing this. The potential to expand the game experience was huge and with the intuitive controls of the Wii it made perfect sense to have a Trauma Centre type game with more emphasis on the comedy aspect of this classic board game. Unfortunately the game is just mediocre at best and becomes extremely tedious very quickly. The basics are the same, pull stupid items from the patient's body, however you have to guide the aforementioned stupid pieces through gates in order to get them out, twisting and moving them as you take the object out. Miss the gates too many times and you'll fail, with you opponent given the opportunity to score double on your failure. Operation's main problem is the real lack of control and it's frustrating and very very annoying.

Connect 4 was a bit more fun, but suffers from exactly the same complaint, it becomes boring very quickly. Like with all the games, there is a remix version which is a bit more Battleshipy in its style, but the AI is incredibly difficult to beat, and even the four player mode, with its double grid, will becoming frustrating. Other than that game mode, it really has nothing to offer in the way of game.

Bop It! is one of the worst games on this disc, only because it really doesn't deliver the authentic Bop It! experience. Yes you have the moron shouting "Pull it!" "Twist it!" "Bop It" and the rest, but you don't have a Bop It in your hand. For those of you not particularly observant, the Wiimote can never replace the actual Bop It! thing. The remix version does offer some new commands, but really the game is stale and half the fun of Bop It! was the actual Bop It! itself. If you want to enjoy Bop It! then get the real thing, it's so much more fun, and isn't likely to misinterpret you're commands!

So we come to Jenga which is a complete waste of time. I know this because I play Boom Blox and Boom Blox Bash Party, two games from EA that have Jenga elements incorporated in it, with much more fun. Jenga is best when it's played in real-life, like Bop It! or Operation, and the whole time I was playing Jenga I was pining for Boom Blox. And it's for this reason I don't even know why it's been included in this package. A more appropriate title would have been something like Mouse Trap where you can vary the way in which the trap is set out.

Pictureka is the best of the lot, as I said before, and although it's just as tedious as the rest of the games, you can spend a half hour playing it. If you've ever played Where's Wally, or something similar, then you can understand the basic concept of the game. You have to be quick to get five foods, or six buttons, or three things that make music, and it's frantic and fun.

As previously stated, you can unlock different outfits for Mr. (or indeed Mrs.) Potato Head and dress them up, but it's not a real potato head, and you'd have more fun dressing up an actual potato.  In shaving gel.

Family Game Night 2 isn't the best of games. It's tedious, boring and overlooks what made these games fun in the first place: the social and interactive elements of the board games. Being physically involved in the game is what it's all ag` Trivial Pussuyhicrlly lnvulveit wasn't a bad offering, this is certainly the weaker of the two. Go and buy the real board games, and don't spend your time or money on this.

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