Remember board games? Those things that your granny used to make you play when she babysat you? I used to love them – Connect Four, Scrabble, Monopoly, even the waste of time that was Mouse Trap – but why would I play them on a console? It seems somewhat pointless. Unless you think of all the kids that have grown up with a Wii and PSP and have never even had the pleasure of spinning the dizzy, dizzy dinosaur, surely this is the last throw of the dice for them, the last chance for them to experience the classics.
Hasbro Family Game Night Volume 2 does try to capture the games and in some of them it works well, others, not so. It has the classic versions of Hasbro games Connect Four, Jenga, Pictureka, Operation and Bop It (which I have never heard of). Not a bad line-up when you consider that this is the second volume, although strangely Connect Four was in the first game. These are fairly simple to play once you nail the basics, but the game is severely lacking a decent tutorial, especially for the remix modes. You have to stumble through your first few games to learn the basics.
Jenga and classic Connect Four are simple enough that anyone can play them, and even teach them to kids. But when you play the other modes of these two (original Connect Four and the remix modes) then it gets a little confusing. The original mode of Connect Four is almost 3D, where you can take over someone’s peg by laying your colour on top of it. It does make the games longer and more involved, once you get used to it that is, but the first few games are a confusing muddle and I can’t even imagine how hard it is for the kids. The remix mode is even more of a mess with power ups and other various things all littering the frame, quickly turning the most basic of games needlessly confusing.
But the remix mode of the original Jenga works really well. It extends on the simple yet tricky game by adding coloured blocks and allotting you a colour to pick. Even this can be a bit of a struggle for kids and newcomers as you have to be very slight with the wii-mote as any false move can bring the whole block down. Operation’s remix mode adds something very simple yet tons of fun. When you find the item of offence – cheesy feet, frog in the throat, etc – but before you have to drag it back up through the throat – which is really hard by the way (my niece struggled so much and eventually got bored of this game) as you have to swivel the wii-mote, thus moving the item, to fit through the shapes – you get to play an Asteroids like germ shooting game which far surpassed the actual extraction.
Bop It is very weird, more of a party game than an actual board game. You have to move the wii-mote in specific ways as the character calls them out. What makes it tricky is remembering the moves when the voice shouts them out, made even more difficult when the game refuses to actually acknowledge your move, even though you copied it perfectly. But once you get used to it (and spot Mr/Mrs Potato Head demonstrating the moves in the background) it can become fun as it has the right amount of laughter and embarrassment to amuse the whole family.
Surprisingly, the best game of the lot is Pictureka; it’s simple enough that anyone can play it and quickly becomes more of a team effort with everyone shouting out help. You take turns looking for specific things from boards that are filled to the brim with little cartoon items. It does sound very easy but it can get really tough, however, unlike some of the others the premise is simple enough that it remains fun. The items are all well crafted and full of character, becoming animated when you click on them.
The character and care is continued throughout the entire presentation of the game. The main menu screen is set up like a house with all the games trying to jump out of the wall to get at you. You can customise the house from the menu screen, choosing from New York, Las Vegas and Tokyo. The best feature is the loveable host, Mr (or Mrs) Potato Head, who not only dances around the screen and hosts the games, but lets you dress him (or her) up like a cowboy. How cool is that? There is a series of different set outfits that are lacking the key defining features, leaving you to unlock them by playing the game and meeting certain criteria, but you can mess them up and make a superhero cowboy police man (or woman). This is great for the kids and will even grab a little too much attention from the adults.
Hasbro Family Game Night Volume 2 is a fun trip into nostalgia, a good game to play when you have the family and friends over, but it can be a little hard to get to grips with. Kids especially will struggle on some of the games, which is a shame as this could have been great for them, but if you keep them enthused and teach them the basics, like we had to do, then they could learn to love them too.
VideogameUK verdict: 6/10
