OK, for my second review, I'm doing this one, which I picked up for £15 last week.
Game: Game Party
RRP: £19.99
Release Date: 15/2/08
Wifi: No
Players: 4
PEGI Rating: 3+
Controls: One handed, point forwards
This is yet another compendium of mini-games - there are actually 7 different games. Up to 4 people can play, and you can choose between 6 different characters to use in the games. The overall idea is to win tickets to unlock more variations of the games. Apparently by getting 25, 50 or 75 tickets on a particular game, you can unlock different coloured balls, pucks, mallets etc, plus different playing surfaces.
I shall try to tell you about each game and summarise at the end.
1. Table Hockey
In my opinion, the best game on the disc. This plays well, and looks better than the Wii Play version, although it's a pity you don't get to use Miis. I found the controls straightforward and enjoyed playing this.
2. Hoop Shot
This is basically basketball practice, but I could not get on with the controls at all and missed every time until I lost my temper. Either I'm a numbskull or this game's controls are rubbish.
3. Darts
There are three variations to choose from:
a) High Score
b) 301/501/701 (so you can play your traditional 501 if desired)
c) Cricket
A further variant, Baseball Darts, can be unlocked through the collection of tickets.
Again, I didn't get on with the controls for this game. I found that where I had put my aim before throwing was irrelevant. The dart would still go somewhere completely different, which seemed poor.
4. Skill Ball
There is a game extremely similar to this on Carnival Games, and unfortunately it plays 10 times better on Carnival. Very poor gameplay, once again.
5. Trivia
You take it in turns to spin a wheel to select a category, then you get 3 questions to answer on that category, with 4 multiple choice answers to choose from. The questions are ok, and the wheel spins nicely, so I guess this section is ok. But if I wanted to buy a trivia game, I would get Big Brain Academy or Cranium Kabooki, which would be umpteen times better than this poor-man's version.
You can unlock Lightening Trivia with tickets, apparently.
6. Ping Cup
This game is so silly, I can't even find a picture of it online. You have a ping pong table and a ping pong ball. You bounce the ball on the table and try to get it into one of a group of plastic cups at the other end of the table. It is nearly impossible to do. And utterly pointless.
7. Shuffleboard
This is a clever and skillful game, and I enjoyed it. You have to slide your puck down a table and get points depending on which lines it stops between - push it too far and it falls off the edge, scoring nil. You take it in turns, and the skill lies in pushing your opponents' pucks off the table so you get the most points.
With enough tickets, you can unlock curling. I have to say, I shall work towards unlocking this, as this is definitely a good game, and I think curling would be a great variation.
Summary:
Two good games (Table Hockey & Shuffleboard) plus five bad games. I cannot recommend buying this game, even at the £15 that I paid for it, unless you are happy to play just air hockey and shuffleboard for that money.
It really does seem superfluous to requirements, and has done nothing to demonstrate anything new about the wii.
Score:
Gameplay: 4/10 (for the 2 good games)
Innovation: 0/10
Graphics: 3/10
Value for money: 2/10
Overall score: 3/10
Not recommended unless you see it really cheap on the used shelf or really like Shuffleboard!
Game Party Review
Linear Mode
