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What’s the Story?

Reviewed by Jinny Gudmundsen

HASBRO FAMILY GAME NIGHT is a compilation of traditional board games and wacky variations for families to play together on the Wii. With Mr. Potato Head acting as the game host, families can play Boggle, Yahtzee, Battleship, Sorry, Connect 4, and the brand new Sorry Sliders. The game also has a Party mode which consists of between 10-30 rounds of minigames based on the board games.

To play most of the games, you use the Wii remote as a pointer and pick up game pieces by pushing the A button. In Yahtzee, you'll also shake the dice by waggling the Wii remote. For the Sorry Sliders, you flip the Wii remote toward the screen to make Sorry pieces slide toward the center in a shuffle-board-type game.

Is It Any Good?

4

Connect 4, Boggle, Yahtzee, and the Sorry Sliders games work well on the Wii. Their variations are wild and exciting. For example, in one of the Connect 4 variations, some of your game pieces have special attributes like chips that blow up others on contact or ones that move an entire column down one space. And the minigames in the Party Mode are short but zany—great fun with up to 4 players. However, the games of Sorry and Battleship don't fare so well on the Wii. You'll miss being able to study the game board in Sorry, and in Battleship, the repetitive graphics get boring. Plus the targeting is cumbersome.

So, here's the bottom line: If your family enjoys board games and would find wacky versions of classic board games interesting, then this is a good fit. Likewise if your family would like a little friendly competition involving minigames using these game boards, grab this title. It is also good for kids who like to play board games but can't always find a playmate -- with this game, both Mr. Potato Head and virtual playmates are always available. However, if you simply want to play traditional board games, do it on your kitchen table instead.

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