Why dig through the closet for the board games when you can play them in the virtual world?
Xbox Live Arcade is a great way to get your hands on games that fit our current economic situation. Most games are affordable and even convenient thanks to digital downloads. EA has put together some old Hasbro board games that you may remember as a kid, and are fun for the entire family, in the form of Hasbro Family Game Night. Released a while back on the Wii and PS2 at 40 dollars you got the whole package, but thanks to this release on XBLA you can pick and choose which game you want to play. What's more, you can enjoy them online versus other gamers.
While you can't purchase the entire package at a discounted price, you do have the option to trial the games before you buy, and at 10 dollars a pop, this will let you decide whether the price merits the value of each particular game. Right now you have the choice between Scrabble, Connect Four, Battleship, and Yahtzee. What's more you need not worry about losing pieces or putting the games back in the closet.
Scrabble is without a question one of the best puzzle games on the market right now. Thanks to the CPU handling the referee job, you no longer have to research the dictionary to see if a word exists or is allowed in the game. The obvious hiccup comes when you are playing the game locally as everyone has the ability to see your letters. I guess you can always have everyone turn their heads while you choose your word. This game is easily geared for online play keeping your tiles a secret. There are plenty of bells and whistles visually to give it the typical video game flare as well.
Connect Four on the other hand doesn't translate as well to the virtual world. The game is a simple game of placing 4 of the same colored chips in a row before your opponent has the chance to. While the timed modes and Power Chip mode that gives certain chips special power ups provide further gaming appeal, it is hard to argue that the price tag may be a little steep for this one.
Battleship lends itself well to XBLA more so than local play as well thanks to placement of your ships. In solo play or multiplayer the game does provide one challenge in the fact you can not see where you place your ships once the game has begun. So as your opponent is firing away, you mainly hope and pray that they are not in striking range of your own ships. There are some decent explosions and sound effects, but honestly no much more than a home version of electronic Battleship would supply.
Lastly, you have Yahtzee which is a nice relaxing game that allows you to leave the pencils and paper in the drawer, and the relief of the dice not straying way off the board causing for those controversial re-rolls. In multiplayer action the game can be a fun and competitive journey, but it's the single player game I have to call shenanigans on. I swear the CPU either is controlling the roll of the dice, or is the luckiest SOB on the planet. Either way, the game is simple yet addicting and is one of the best titles in the collection.
Hasbro Family Game Night does what it seeks out to do, which is supply a selection of great games that have been around for decades, and allows the family to gather around the old boob tube versus the dining room table. What else would you expect from the 21st century right? With other titles such as Boggle and Sorry in the works, it is nice to see that EA isn't going to let this one collect dust. So boot this collection up, give the trial a run, and see which games are a fit for your XBLA experience, or best left in the closet.
