[Review] Family Game Night 3 (Wii)

Family Game Night 3 for Wii (MSRP 39.95) is a collection of classic board games including Life, Clue, Mousetrap, Yahtzee Hands Down, and “Twister”.

Overall:  

There’s nothing new about the classics in this collection, but that’s what they are: classics. Get ready to gather some friends on a rainy day and relive those classic board-game memories. While it won’t keep you engaged for more than an hour at a time, it’s a fun casual collection which is fun for a group.

Innovation:  

While the boardgames themselves are timeless, there’s not much new brought to the field here. There are a few mini-games which are nicely spiced in to keep things a little bit dynamic and fresh, but otherwise, it’s a fairly straight conversion. The “Pipe Dream” mini-game in Mouse Trap was a nice throw-back and fit in well.

There’s also “Remix” modes thrown in which change the rules a bit, but you’re usually wanting to play with your familiar, timeless, tried-and-true original rules anyway.

The other oddity is Twister, which is more of a rhythm memory match game than anything like the classic body gambit it’s supposed to represent. It would have been nice to see some actual Wii-Motion body flinging put into this rather than simple button pressing.

Usability:  

The traditional game rules may be well known to some, but not all. There is in game help available, but it’s not always consistent as to when it’s fleshed out to describe all situations.

The main plague is the constant slew of dialogs, especially on computer controlled player’s turns. It slows things down a tad, especially if you’re playing on your own.

Otherwise, things are pretty straight-forward as most sequences of the turn are roll, move, action.

Atmosphere:  

You can’t beat the look of classic boardgames and they’ve really been brought to life in this collection. Mr. Potato Head is your MC and funnily enough fits in pretty well.

The graphics aren’t spectacular, but they’re rather well polished and as you get into the games and relive your childhood memories, you soon forget you’re not sitting down at the kitchen table.

There’s a few little hiccups here and there, but they don’t detract too much from the game. For instance, in Life when you get a child, the animation always has a ‘pink’ bonhomme instead of the one corresponding to what you actually received.

Fun Factor:  

It’s always fun to grab a board game and some friends on a rainy day and play, but sometimes you just like to hold pieces and cash in your hand and actually look at people’s faces.

While digital versions can add some spice and save the tax of book keeping, setup and cleanup, they’re not always the same.

Replayability:  

There’s only so many times you can play these boardgames, but they’re definitely note worthy for that rainy day or casual group gathering coming in your future.

You’ll definitely get a few good hours of fun out of this collection, especially with a few friends around, but you won’t be playing it day in, day out.