Kombo’s Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don’t waste your time. This is why we’ve split our reviews into four sections: What the Game’s About, What’s Hot, What’s Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.
What the Game’s About
Hasbro Family Game Night 2 brings five board games to your Wii console in one package. Bop It, Connect 4X4, Operation, Jenga and Pictureka are the playable games. The game feels like a game show with Mr. Potato Head as the host and you can either play the games in their original version or with tweaked rules called “remixed” mode.
What’s Hot
The value of the games on one disc is reason alone to check this game out. The game retails for $40 and if you had to buy the games individually, it would cost more than that. The Wii usually gets grief for having a lot of mini-game compilations but don’t lump Family Game Night 2 in that bunch because these aren’t mini-games. These are the full fledged games in their own right and with the remixed mode, familiar games get a brand new take. The production values are high and you get a sense that you are playing a board game even though it is on the TV screen. Pictureka and Connect 4X4 are the two games that translate the best on the Wii and are just darn fun to play.
What’s Not
The other three games on the disc, Bop It, Operation and Jenga are just clumsy representations of what these games really are. In Bob It’s case, the gameplay is just broken. Operation had to change the dynamic of the gameplay by involving the Wii-mote too much. It doesn’t feel like the same Operation at all. Jenga doesn’t build the same tension as the regular game does. Perhaps it has something to do with not actually feeling the friction of the blocks and the center of gravity shifting with each small tug of a wooden block but whatever the reason, it just doesn’t feel the same. Hasbro has a host of other games in their line that may have been better suited for the video game treatment and picking these games proved a little too ambitious.
Final Word
There is some good and some bad with Family Game Night 2. You might very well like the new way Operation is played or the lower anxiety of Jenga so this is a solid rent for what the name of the game is, a family game night. The games that are fun are very fun, it is just too bad the entire package is so hit-or-miss.
