At D3's press event in San Francisco, GameSpot had the opportunity to play almost half of the minigames in Family Party: 30 Great Games. The games are similar to what you would see in a Japanese game show, so there were bridges to fall from, paper to jump through, and, of course, giant blue helmets to protect everyone's noggins should they lose their balance. Up to four players can abuse each other in these minigames, so they jumped right in to see what this game had to offer.
Nintendo continues to add to its already robust collection of both new and classic downloadable titles this week with the release of SNES title: Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen on the virtual console, as well as Family and Friends Party, an interactive board game for up to 8 players available via WiiWare.
Last week saw the debut of three Commodore 64 titles as well as the long-awaited co-op FPS Onslaught, and while this week lacks the excitement of the former, Nintendo has done an incredible job releasing titles from all sectors so that every gamer will have something to spend their precious Wii Points on.
Despite its claim of greatness, Family Party's mini-games range from abysmal to bland. Many are physically abusive and/or feel redundant; others have moderately interesting ideas but leave much to be desired. This game only offers frustration to those that would try it, and is not worth anyone's time or money.
GA writes: "I am guessing that most people will have the same gut reaction to Family Party: 30 Great Games as when I first picked it up; serious doubt about the word "great" being in the title. After playing the game many times, I feel confident in saying that the title is promoting false advertisement. A more accurate title would be 30 Mini Games.
There are six "great games" in each of five areas; Athletics, Castle, Muscle, Shooting and Variety. Initially, there are three areas unlocked; each with five games. The remainder are unlocked by getting first place overall in the unlocked areas. At least I think that is how they are unlocked. This worked for me for two of the three areas. However, there were two times when I placed first in the Athletics area that I was awarded with the word Failed. I have never heard of getting first place and failing. After brooding about my first place failures, I realized something; failure is the mark of this game. In almost every way this game fails. From the manual that has no useful information to the terrible AI; this game has failure written everywhere."
