If you were to poll gamers at large and ask them what they felt were the worst things about the Wii, chances are you'd hear "waggle" and "bad minigame collections" pretty frequently. In fact they often went hand in hand, and Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade is trying its hardest to make sure both of things carry over into the Wii U generation. We can only hope that they don't.
Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade — it just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? — is, as you might guess, a collection of short games that you can play with up to three friends. You might also guess that the games would revolve around an "obstacle" theme, but you'd be wrong; many of them are standard rounds of target practice, hide and seek, or, erm, picking the balloon with the number two on it after the game tells you to pick the balloon with the number two on it. That last one's not much of a game really, but there you go.
The collection is given a sort of theme park approach, with the games broken up into smaller, unlockable areas. Again, you'd expect the space area to contain space-themed games and the Western area to host games with a cowboy flair but by and large everything is just thrown at the wall with no regard for where it lands, and there's no telling what you'll encounter where. Fortunately, we guess, whatever you encounter will be reliably awful, so there's that to look forward to.
The games are hosted by a dead-eyed teddy bear with a stare so cold and creepy that we were constantly on edge for that inevitable moment when he'd pull out a knife. Half of his face is frozen in a bizarre semblance of what we can only assume is the developer's attempt at "'tude", while the other half just passively smiles. This, combined with the fact that his lips don't move when he talks, makes it seem like we've walked in on the bear in the middle of a massive coronary that's doomed to go untreated.
The entire package feels like a holdover from the previous generation; none of the graphics come anywhere near the capabilities of Nintendo's newest console, and the Wii U GamePad barely factors in at all, with each of the games requiring instead a Wii Remote and, often, Nunchuk. This means Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade plays identically to every other poorly-responsive, uninteresting, lazily slapped together mini-game collection you've been doing your best to avoid since 2006.
Every game supports four players; if there are fewer human players than that, the CPU will fill the void. Human players can enter any name for themselves that they like, but oddly the game also requires you to choose a separate name for the bear to call you by. This is because the developers only gave the bear a limited bank of audio files from which to draw, so you may tell the game that your name is William, but then you'll have to choose whether it calls you Chano or Shamus or Julio instead. It's bizarre to say the least.
In each game you'll compete against the other three for points. This nearly always involves waggling as quickly as possible, but sometimes it can rely on maneuvering crosshairs around the screen instead. No game is any more complicated than that, and it often feels as though the developer went out of its way to assign the most frustrating control schemes possible. Some games, for instance, are races that see you hopping from platform to platform. Despite the fact that each player has a perfectly good D-Pad and A button to use, Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade requires you to thrust the Wii Remote in the direction you wish to jump. Not that it cares where you actually thrust; it's a crapshoot whether or not the game will ever recognise your input. It's a needless and mandatory use of the least reliable control scheme possible, which is pretty much par for the course here.
The Wii U GamePad only comes into play during the bonus rounds. The rest of the time it features the glass-eyed bear glowing creepily at you and loudly narrating minor gameplay developments without moving his mouth. During the bonus rounds the winner of the previous game spins a roulette wheel, which determines what the bonus game will be. Here the GamePad is used differently than the Wii Remotes, but it's certainly no more fun, and it really does feel like a tacked on addition to what's essentially a low budget Wii cash-in.
The sound effects are beyond terrible, as the four players on-screen avatars laugh and hoot and holler over each other throughout every event, turning everything into a clamorous, cluttered aural monstrosity. The bear barks meaningless platitudes about every minor thing that happens — from a player grabbing a coin to a player not grabbing a coin — and while you're not likely to come away from this game feeling fulfilled you're more or less guaranteed a headache.
We'd like to close on a positive note of some kind, but we genuinely can't. This is an absolutely terrible game, and you don't want it. Trust us.
Conclusion
As clunky and poorly considered as its title, Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade is awful. Relying entirely on the shallow and repetitive waggle that should have died along with Wii, there's absolutely no reason to recommend this obnoxious, screaming, clattering monstrosity at all. It's mindless entertainment at its worst, but, on the bright side, it might be the perfect way to cure your childrens' burgeoning video game addiction.
Comments 44
To bad, no family party...
Sounds delightful.
This kind of shovelware gave the Wii a bad name, we don't need games like this infecting the Wii U
When you see a game that gives its cheap price a selling point, its usually a bad game.
Have yet to find a single good comment on the Miiverse for this game... lol
"it might be the perfect way to cure your childrens' burgeoning video game addiction."
This is not a bad idea at all, now isn't it?
11/100 on Metacritic? That makes it the second worst game rated by more than 4 reviewers on Metacritic, only Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing is worse rated at 8/100.
Also, Phillip, can we see a picture of that bear?Never mind, I think I found it.
We desperatly need the old "Nintendo Seal of Quality" back and what it stoof for. Sure, even older generations had their "shovelware" but the medium was very young. Today, stuff like that should be filtered out by some kind of Quality testing team
I made a Miiverse comment that was a drawing of a man face crying with "The game creator's reaction to reading this community." written.
The sad thing is that stuff like this sells.
The best part about this game is the Miiverse community. It served as inspiration for my drawing of the Forever Alone guy, with a caption saying "An owner of Family Party..."
@Einherjar:
We desperatly need the old "Nintendo Seal of Quality" back and what it stoof for.
Amen to that!
@Farmboy74: Unfortunately, I feel as though many "developers" will still view the Wii U as a family console, despite Nintendo's efforts to bring back long-time gamers, and thus, no matter what, we will continue to have these releases.
That said, I feel it may be on a much smaller scale than the Wii. Not only was the Wii U marketed more as a traditional console and not "HEY, YOUR GRANDMA CAN PLAY TOO! HOW 'BOUT DAT?!" but Miiverse seems to indicate that people aren't buying into this trash.
With the word "obstacle" in the title you just know the game is going to lend itself to accurate bad puns.
I almost feel responsible for this b/c this is the game I wanted when the Wii U and Gamepad were announced. Though in my version it was played online on the Gamepad with video chat support and the mini-games didn't suck.
Best. Miiverse. Community. Ever.
This is yet another mii verse community full of trolls
Lol, I went on the MiiVerse community and draw out "GOTY" on it
"We wanna make a Wii console for you" - Reggie
Step one: get this crap outta here!!
@Einherjar TRUE STORY!!!! I miss that damn seal!!
The title alone scares me shirtless!!! NOT SEXY, NOT SEXY AT ALL!!!!
I thought that was Deadpool in that picture of the hot dog eating contest at first, now off to Miiverse XD
I actually know someone who enjoys this game. I can't fathom why.
Miiverse trolled the community for this game so badly it was almost sad to watch.
Almost.
Stop making these kind of games please!!!
another blockbuster!
This game is unBEARable.
Shovelware already? Wii U wasn't even 2 weeks old and 3rd parties were already releasing their garbage.
What annoys me is that this type of game takes the p out of social, family gaming also allowing isolationist, uber-hardcore gamers to wade in. Such games can be of great quality like the Warioware series, Nintendo Land, Wii Party, Wii Sports Resort etc etc etc.
Worse game!!!
The only good thing about this game is the Mii Verse community.
Love trolling that.
The problem is that parents/grandparents who have no idea what to buy see these things and think they're getting a great deal because there are 30 games. To protect their image, Nintendo should be stopping the release of stuff like this. Make the Seal of Quality mean something again.
Not again!
Why did D3 publish this!? WHY!
It isn't a beary good game
Game of the year, ladies and gentlemen!
WHY? WHY THE SHOVELWARE?
We don't need this kind of garbage! Not when we've got a fresh new start in the Wii U!
@MarioKenny1992 OoT is nothin' compared to this, right? xD
Ouch!
@Magnet_Man018 Well said! XD
Even if I had kids, this game wouldn't be on my buying list.
This game seems like Mario Party, except for no boards and less minigames.
I own this.....
Well that sucks
@TheLordAndrew bad luck
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