kjell1979's Full Review: Battleship / Connect Four / Sorry / Trouble for DS
Whenever we have a family game night, the kids always want to play Sorry. This was one of my most favorite and treasured games when I was their age so why not break out the same tattered Sorry box that I had and play? We'll have fun trying to convince each other who to bump but it's often to no avail. My daughter always knows the best play and my son always wants to "bump daddy" no matter what the situation. But little did I realize when I picked this up for the kids that this wasn't all it was cracked up to be. There's no negotiation with the computer since it has its own opinion on what the right move is no matter what you say (or think).
Battleship
Battleship is a game where the object is to sink your opponent's fleet of ships before he or she can do the same to you. You accomplish this task by setting up your ship horizontally or vertically on your grid. You then take turns firing missiles at coordinates on your opponent's identical grid. If you hit a ship it's a hit if it's a miss it's a miss. When you hit all the spaces for a particular ship it's sunk and your opponent notifies you of that fact. The ships all are one space wide so when you score a hit you kind of have to guess as to the orientation of the ship and where you hit it.
Despite the "strategy" in setting up your game board, this is more of a game of luck. Once you come up with an efficient guessing strategy your ability to find your opponent's ships is limited to your ability you accurately guess where they are. And it takes some patience especially if you're trying to find that small cruiser ship that takes up only two spaces. That sucker can be hard to find sometimes. But this is a fun game to play in person, but against the computer can kind of be rather tedious and boring.
Connect Four
Connect Four is a gravity-based tic tac toe game on a bigger grid. The object is for two players to take turns dropping checkers into a grid and connect four in a row, horizontally, diagonally, or vertically. Connect Four is the only pure skill game out of the complete set of games here. All the others are based more in luck than anything else. To that end you have the option of playing on one of 3 difficulty levels. Unfortunately they are all the same which is really hard. Even on the easiest skill level the computer beats me pretty bad. As a kid I always lost at Connect Four since I never took the time to understand the strategy behind it so I tended to move randomly. As an adult I hashed out more strategies, but the computer was always one step ahead of me. I don't understand how a 6 or 7 year old could beat the computer at all in this game. Then again, maybe I should accept my low IQ and move on. This can be a really fun game, but like the others it's pretty basic.
Sorry
Sorry is a Parcheesi like game where the object is to move your four pieces around a board and into your home base before your opponents can do the same. The amount of spaces you can move is determined by the number or action on the card you draw from a deck. Each number card has the same action. For instance the 4 card always forces you to move back 4 spaces, and either a 1 or 2 will allow you the option of moving a piece from your starting area and onto the board. Then there are Sorry cards which allow you to move a piece directly from your starting area and replace an opponent on the board.
Sorry when played on a physical game board is quite enjoyable. There are many different choices that can be made and the interaction between the players is one of its strongest points. Unfortunately, when playing a soulless computer that lacks the ability to interact with on a social level, the game becomes rather dry. And while there are many different choices to make, I often find that most are rather obvious to make. The computer AI generally makes the right decisions, though it never takes any chances either. If both you and your opponent have 3 pieces in your home base and your opponent is close to winning while your last piece is far away from your home, you have to take chances. For instance I might choose to go backwards one space instead of 10 forwards if I draw a 10 card and am at the starting spot. Yes I probably won't draw another 10 or 4 which allow me to go backwards again and thus right in front of my home base, but it's worth it right? The computer AI will go 10 forwards always no matter what and not take that chance. Overall this is a fun game to play, but I don't think it translates well to the DS.
Trouble
Trouble is a more basic form of Sorry. The object of Trouble is to move your four pieces around the board and back into home before your opponents can do the same. Instead of drawing cards, you press down on a plastic bubble on the game board that serves to roll a single 6-sided die. You then move your piece depending on the number shown. There are a couple catches. First, if you roll a 6 you may take a player out of your starting area. In addition a rolled 6 also means you get to roll again. No two pieces can occupy the same space. So if your piece comes to rest on a space occupied by another player you send their piece back to start. If it's your own piece on that space, you cannot move.
Overall this is a pretty simple game that tends to play itself. There aren't too many decisions to be made here. Most of the time you'll want to bump an opposing player off the board, move a piece into your home base, or move your piece out of the starting area. There are certain tricks which you can do to really attack your opponent, but often most of those do not play out over the course of a normal game. The computer AI makes just about the right move every time. There are a few occasions where it doesn't but given the limited moves and strategies it's not really that noticeable. In Trouble even the greenest player will win close to 20% of the time in a 4 player game.
Controls
The controls are pretty basic, though they do not always work well. You have the option to use the stylus or dpad to perform actions or select pieces to move. In most instances the dpad works the best. Why use your stylus to touch the Trouble bubble or deck of Sorry cards when a simple press of the A button suffices? Though sometimes using the stylus to select a piece to move can be a little more convenient than using the dpad to cycle through your available pieces. The best use of the stylus is in Battleship. Using your stylus to manually place ships is much easier than using the dpad, though sometimes tapping the pieces to rotate them doesn't always work well. However, I find myself using the stylus to choose a place to fire my missile onto my opponent's board. So overall the controls are rather straightforward though there's nothing innovative or spectacular either.
Graphics
The graphics in this collection of games is surprisingly good. The top screen has a lot of polygonal animations where missiles fire from your board to an opponent's board in Battleship or a piece hops around the board in Sorry or Trouble. In Connect Four you can see each person's perspective on the board as well as the checkers being dropped into place. The bottom screen tends to feature a sprite-based view of the board, which can be much more convenient as it allows you to use the stylus a little cleaner in certain situations.
There are a few instances where the polygonal views are too claustrophobic, especially while watching a piece hop across the board in Sorry or Trouble. Also in Trouble, it's hard to tell where your piece starts out and where it begins to turn up into your home base. It's not a huge deal as you get the hang of it once the game starts, but if you're not paying attention you might be left to wonder whether taking a piece out of your starting area will bump another player.
Sound
If it wasn't for Tecmo Bowl Kickoff, this would have been the worst audio in a video game I heard all year. Despite its inability to shatter my ear drums like Tecmo Bowl Kickoff, the audio is pretty bad. The music actually is kind of catchy (especially the bass medley), but there aren't that many different tunes. But the music is by far the best aspect of the audio even though it's far below average.
What really annoyed me about this game's audio was the annoying voice that says whose turn it is and what they rolled or did. He says quotes from the Simpsons when you don't do well (i.e. "doe!", "HAha!", etc.) and constantly announces the color. When it's your turn he says "C'mon [color]". It just makes me mad. Combine that with the shrill sound effects and I just end up shutting off the sound effects.
Replay Value
There really much of anything in terms of replay value here. When played multiplayer in the same room it can have some lasting value, but that also means multiple copies of the game which seems like a waste. When playing the computer, the AI is either too hard, too easy, or just plain random. Overall, I couldn't imagine spending more than 10 hours playing these games without your brain melting. In terms of replay value Clubhouse Games is a much better value and offers more thoughtful and challenging games even if the computer AI isn't so great. But for grade school kids, it's just about right.
If you have a couple kids, each with his or her own DS and a copy of the game, then you can play these games in the car without worrying about setup, messes, or other issues. However, these games are typically played by young kids, and wouldn't your rather play the game where they learn how many spaces to move and have to read the card's instruction and know when to slide your piece rather than having that all done for you? It seems kind of lazy and almost defeats the purpose of these games. Yes video game Monopoly is convenient because it does the math for you, but isn't it beneficial for a 2nd grader to know how to make change for a $500? While these games are fun, they also are surprisingly educational when physically played. I'd rather have my kids playing Pokemon on their DS because at least they're reading and solving problems.
We've all played 'em before...and we always come back to play 'em again. They're classic games, and these four are as good as they get. Here's your ch...More at GameQuest Direct. com
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