Hasbro Family Game Night review

The title of this game strikes fear into the hearts of Gamestyle. Although the Wii has introduced videogaming to the family masses, we hope it'll be a long time before a Family Game Night consists of sitting around a table with a couple of DS's. Not in EA's eyes, apparently, and they have brought together the four "classic" "board games" of Battleship, Connect 4, Operation, and Bop It onto one cartridge for the family to enjoy.Gamestyle can understand the reasoning, to some extent. At just under 20, Family Game Night represents good value for money, considering that buying all the games individually at Toys R Us would set you back more than twice that. You don't get those fiddly pieces to lose and tread on in dark early mornings, and you don't have to find room in the cupboard. You don't have to dust the boxes off each Christmas, and there's less room for cheating. Although these things made the games fun.Strip away the novelty boards, physical pieces, and the unique atmosphere that playing the game on your dinning room table gives, and you're left with a pretty dull experience. It's not that the games aren't well-presented; the graphics are simple and efficient, and the sounds are decent, but it always feels that EA is trying too hard to justify making virtual versions of these games. It's not just enough to recreate the games on the DS, but each game has multiple variations to play. Again, the reasoning for this is clear, and the new modes do add a certain degree of freshness to each game, but the games haven't become family favourites for no reason. The new modes often try to improve on areas where there is no need; adding super weapons to battleships, for example, which target multiple squares at once, or powered-up Connect 4 pieces, which destroy adjacent tokens or block off columns. These gimmicks turn genuinely strategic games into more of a lottery.This game is obviously not aimed at adults who might appreciate the more strategic elements of the game, and there is enough to lure children to playing. The games are presided over by Mr Potatohead, and there's a great deal to unlock, from colourful backgrounds to trophies for performing certain achievements during each game. The touch screen controls work well in most of the games, although fall short in Operation, the which sadly requires the most precision. The AI opponents are surprisingly good, and even adults will find beating them a challenge.The games themselves are controlled as you would expect with the DS. In Battleship, you position pieces around the board with the stylus, and point on the grid where you want to launch a missile. In Connect 4, you can use either the stylus or the D-Pad and buttons to place pieces, and Gamestyle found the latter to be the easiest to play. Operation undergoes the most radical change of all the games, and after selecting a piece to remove, you have a certain amount of time to drag the piece along a twisting tube, representing the patient's insides. If you touch the sides, the patient flat-lines, and you have to revive him by hitting randomly appearing buttons before they disappear. Bop It is both fun and annoying in equal measures. You complete touchscreen actions of pulling, twisting, and tapping when instructed, and in time with the music. There is also the option to use the microphone to shout when asked, but this is turned off by default, for those who are concerned about looking foolish.There are various multiplayer options available in Family Game Night. Gamestyle is thankful to see that the most obvious (the ability to take turns on one DS) is included. It's likely that a family will have a couple of DS's, and there is a single-card download play option, so you don't have to buy two games to appease squabbling siblings. Whilst there's no online multiplayer, you can play wirelessly with someone locally, if they have the cartridge themselves.Family Game Night does exactly what is sets out to do. It brings together four family games, and successfully recreates them on the DS. Gamestyle may question EA's motives, but it's hard to find fault in the manner in which they've approached the task. Gamestyle does find it hard to recommend purchasing Family Game Night, as a far better investment would be buying the actual board games themselves. If, however, you're eager to find a cheaper way to reminisce, or are looking for a game to keep the kids quiet on long journeys, there are far worse ones to choose than this.