Common Sense Media Review
By Christopher Healy
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Classic-ish board games reconfigured into party video games.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 7+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Play
Videos and Photos
Hasbro Family Game Night 3
What's It About?
HASBRO FAMILY GAME NIGHT 3 is the latest collection of video-game-ized board games intended for group play. The board games featured this time around are Clue, The Game of Life, Twister, Mousetrap, and Yahtzee! Hands Down (a rummy-esque card game). Each game can be played in its \"traditional\" format or in a \"remix\" version with new rules. However, the \"traditional\" versions have all been altered to work as video games, making the idea of remixes feel redundant.
Is It Any Good?
The titles of the board games featured in Hasbro Family Game Night 3 are definitely more famous than those in the last installment of the series. Clue, Twister, Mousetrap, and The Game of Life are all definitive classics. Yet the gameplay has been so drastically altered on some of them that they resemble the original board games in theme only. Clue, for instance, has become a somewhat confusing mish-mash of moving around a board and playing reflex-testing mini-games. Twister bares no resemblance to the original game -- instead, it's a button-pressing rhythm game set as a dance contest between avatars. Shouldn't they have at least had the avatars on a Twister mat? The Game of Life plays perfectly well as a direct translation of the board game, which is why it's actually kind of annoying when you're suddenly forced to play a target-hitting mini-game. It's not that these games aren't fun, it's just that they're all a bit too far removed from their source material.
Online interaction: All three console versions of the game offer online play. The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions allow unmoderated voice chat during online play, including with strangers.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about commercialism in video games. This game features several board games that can be purchased in real life. Does this make the video game a commercial for those board games?
Families can also discuss whether video games are a good way for families to spend social time together. Does it depend on the game? In what ways can video games bring kids and parents together?
Game Details
- Platforms : Nintendo Wii , PlayStation 3 , Xbox 360
- Pricing structure :
- Available online? : Not available online
- Publisher : Electronic Arts
- Release date : October 26, 2010
- Genre : Party
- ESRB rating :
- Last updated : November 11, 2020
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