Hasbro Family Game Night Review

Written by: Darren Cartledge Posted: 17th February 2009

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We have a night in.

Hasbro Family Game Night Details:

	Casual
	Nintendo Wii
	EA Games
	EA Games

Out Now

1-4

I have never really seen the point of games companies turning board games in videogames, but hey I don’t suppose that’s going to stop them doing it. So with that in mind we’ve decided to take a look at the latest offering from EA, Hasbro Family Game Night.

Hasbro Family Game Night is a collection of classic “board games” rather then just one. Six games have been transformed into this digital format Boggle, Connect 4, Sorry!, Yahtzee, Sliders and Battleship. Each game is available in its classic rule set with you playing it as you would if it had just come out of its more usual cardboard box. However, to add to the games longevity Family Game Night also features several different versions of each game. For instance Battleship is playable with Classic, Salvo and Super Weapons rules, whilst Sorry! is playable with classic and bonus cards and Yahtzee can be played with classic rules in addition to advanced and block out rules. As well as these predefined versions of the games, you are also able to choose custom rules for each. This combined with the multiple rule sets for each really adds to the variation on offer in Family Game Night!

As well as being able to play each game separately Family Game Night also includes a party mode in which two or more players can compete in their chosen number of games scoring points against each other. Again depending on what settings you choose, you could be playing a vastly different game from the standard boxed edition. For instance in party mode, a game of Battleship could see you hunting invisible ships, using the Wii remotes rumble feature to locate them.

Like many board games that have made the digital leap, Family Game Night is fairly lacking when it comes to single player, play as most of the games included haven’t made the transition very well. However, Connect 4, Battleship and Boggle can all be entertaining for short periods of time, but the rest definitely require more then one player to get the most out of them.

Effort has been made to utilise the Wii’s unique control system in Family Game Night, however you can’t help feeling that the developers haven’t made the best use of the features the console offers. The control system feels, clumsy and inaccurate at best, and instead of pointing the Wii remote you will often find yourself using the d-pad instead, that’s if that option is available. The games inaccurate controls can make it rather tedious to play some of the included games, especially the ones that require a substantial amount of time to get through. This in turn spoils the overall enjoyment of the game as tedium can rapidly set in.

Visually Family Game Night looks ok, and is probably presented as best one could expect from a digital version of a load of board games. The setting looks good, albeit a little bland, but then it can be customised to the player’s desire with the use of theme which include, boys, girls and art deco. The games themselves look a lot like they would if you were to set the board game up at home, which gives a slight feeling of nostalgia.

Sound in the game is largely absent, the game does feature some music! However this is largely forgettable. Games do have sound effects, and these such as the chips dropping whilst playing Connect 4 or missiles launching in Battleship are all rather good.

Overall Family Game Night is intended to be played by groups of friends or as the title suggest families and this is how you will get the most out of the game. However, the games clumsy controls spoil the overall experience and as a single player game it is far too tedious, so therefore is only recommended to those who intend to play with others and don’t want the hassle of setting up a real board game. At least you won’t have to worry about losing any of the pieces with this game!