When it comes to games that are based on board games things tend to go pretty badly. There have been a few exceptions in recent years with the likes of Trivial Pursuit and Monopoly, but having a virtual board still cannot beat having the actual thing sitting in front of you. So here comes Hasbro Family Games Night Vol 2.
Virtual board games do seem to be the one of the main focuses of Electronic Arts or so it seems. This, as the title suggests, is the second in the range of Family Games Night series. The first game brought with it a collection of some classic board games such as Connect 4 and Boggle. This time around we get treated to Connect 4 again along with Operation, Pictureka, Jenga and Bop It.
Now, you would think that EA might have learnt from the last game and improved on it, well to be fair it has but just not enough to make this game anything but a Christmas cash in. Operation is the most frustrating game of them all; basically you first have 15 seconds to pick out a symptom from a x-ray overlay of poor old Sam’s body. This isn’t too bad as long as you take note of the layout, as for some reason you can only pick out the symptoms as the X-ray line hits them. Once you hit the right icon by just pointing your Wiimote at it and pressing A, you drop into a mini game where you have to pick up the icon of the symptom and then guide it through a vein through a series of shaped rings of which the item needs to be fitted to pass. If you happen not to match it totally to the shape you will raise the temperature of Sam as if his temperature hits the top of the on screen thermometer you will be reset and the next player has a chance to attempt the same procedure.
Out of them all I have to say the only one that I really enjoyed playing was Bop It! As it was so straight forward that it really was impossible to mess it up. You have four actions to do, the obvious Bop it, then the twist it, pull it and finally shout it. Bop it is controlled by hitting A, to twist it you press B and then twist the Wiimote to the side, pulling it is a similar idea where you hold B and pull the Wiimote towards you and finally Shout it is controlled by again holding B and then rotating the Wiimote towards you. Sharing the Wiimote around makes it so much more fun as it feels more like the real thing.
The idea was sound to a point at least and it would have been a great idea of the Christmas day after dinner gaming but the poor execution in some of the board games make it dire to play at times. Unfortunately, Bop It can’t hold the game up by itself and having the whole time playing Bop It wouldn’t be the most entraining time of it.
Nometet.com says: 3.5 Stars
