Sep 27
14. UnoUno for XBLA, a digital adaptation of the popular children’s card game, never planned to pioneer internet exhibitionism, but as one of the first games compatible with the Xbox Live Camera, fell into the role. The ability to capture your image then share it with playmates was, to put it poliltely, a boon for male ?self-promotion?. Truly unfortunate for UNO fans at the time, the penal picing has since been neutered ? blame Chatroulette. For young families we recommend the game, its just as fun as playing with a deck of cards. But maybe play it offline.
13. ScrabbleScrabble had a rough start on both the web and mobile platforms. Scrabbulous wasn’t just the first successful Scrabble clone on Facebook, but the first successful game. And Word With Friends wooed up iPhone scrabblers with a low cost of entry and excellent multiplayer functionality. So with iPad, the Scrabble team had to strike with a truly impressive product, not just some inchoate code to be fixed in future updates. Fair to say, Scrabble for iPad delivers with beautiful graphics and the particularly creative use of Bluetooh, transforming available iPhones into players’ tile racks.
12. Chessmaster LiveChessmaster Live serves as a chess tutor, an Elo rating booster and a PvP matchmaker. It is a true all levels title. No surprise though, Chessmaster has a history of Chess hits (as much as a Chess game has ever been a “hit”.) If you’re a console gamer, Chessmaster Live is your home. And hey, if you need something on the go, try Deep Green for iPhone.
11. Clubhouse GamesA whopping 42 games, all but 3 available for online or local multiplayer. Poker and Old Maid, Chess and Checkers, Darts, Mahjongg and a whole slew of unlicensed versions of your favorite games. And there’s no catch – these games are actually good.
10. Small WorldSmall World on iPad does little more than be a board game, which I predict Small World fans (read: board game enthusiasts) will find plenty appealing. Players randomly choose a race and a special power and use the skills unique to both to conquer a map. That’s best I can describe it without turning the elevator pitch into a 100-story stairwell pitch.
9. Hasbro’s Family Game NightBuy it on a disc for the Wii and get Battleship, Boggle, Connect Four, Sorry!, Sorry! Slider and Yahtzee. Or, if you have an Xbox 360, download the Family Game Night hub for free and cherry pick your favorite titles – available individually for 800 MS Points. Most of the titles are faithful adaptations, Yahtzee arguably the best.
8. Scene it? Box Office SmashScene It? was always closer to a videogame than a board game. No surprise that it succeeds with the board in the screen rather than off. Box Office Smash, with its cutesy graphics, is the office favorite, we’re all movie geeks, but all Scene It? games are competent and worth the low price you can probably get them in the deals bin.
7. Monopoly StreetsFirst, Monopoly Streets is not yet available. However, at E3, it showed considerable promise, which made it worth mentioning when an opportunity came up. Lest we forget, Monopoly has a sordid history in video games, which is really generous way to say every publisher to hold the Monopoly brand has produced Grade-A dreck.
To be fair to anyone who’s ever made a Monopoly game, EA too clearly wants to make lots and lots of money off the brand (they have serious DLC plans in the works), but they also, from what we’ve seen, want to make a great video game adaptation, improving some of Monopoly’s weak points. Anyone who’s actually finished a game can name some: time of play, muddy rules, bidding. This last one, bidding on property is fun, finally.
Here’s how bidding works: Both players control a vertical slide: up raises a bid, down lowers it. As a timer counts to zero, players can try to juke one another by bidding higher and higher on the slider, then slamming down the slider, letting their opponent win the property – at an inflated price. Small additions like this bring something fresh to a familiar game. And the DLC, well, as someone who’s bought a Star Wars Monopoly board – twice- its hard to complain about options at a price.
6. CarcassonneCarcassonne is a tile-based game in which players vie for map supremacy. Technically, it?s German-style board game, but if you?re reading this article you either a.) don?t know what that means or b.) hate that I won?t go into greater detail because German-style board games are the best and blah, blah, blah leave it in the comments. The important thing is this: if board games with funny sounding names intimidate you, this should be the exception to your rule. Carcassonne is quick to enjoy, long to master and fun for the family. That Carcassonne is a foreign and intimidating name to the majority of the public is actually a shame, because it bests a lot of what?s available at Wal-Mart.
5. Risk: FactionsI love Risk. I don’t have time to play Risk. This is a conflict Risk Factions resolves. Faster, but no less strategic, Factions is a fun, sometimes overly goofy, take on the familiar board game. Its also incredibly popular with member of the games press, who make for fodder on the way to the top of the global leaderboard.
4. LifeLife is the casual game of board games, a mostly luck-based romp through the high and lows a life only germane to the white middle-class, middle-income, politically moderate family. So it’s mass market.
3. Tigris and EuphratesTigris and Euphrates can be played in a browser on the iPhone, so we’ll call this an iPhone game despite the absence of a native app. Like Carcassonne, it’s a German game, which again, sounds unapproachable, but really should be short hand by now to means complex-looking, but fun, deep and, ok, sort of complex.
Not just a game about fighting, players can earn points by resolving conflicts, which makes Tigris & Euphrates an essential game for younger games. Look, parents can say, life is not solely about total domination.
2. Lost CitiesA disgustingly addictive card game by British mathematician and game designer, Reiner Knizia, who, you might not know, is sort of a big deal – to board game fans. The gameplay is Solitaire-like, involving numbered suits. Layered on top, multiplier cards. Easier played than explained, it’s worth a look if you have a luxurious amount of free time to surrender to an addiction.
1. CatanThe last of the German-style board game recommendations. Like the others, Catan, the 360′s adaptation of Settlers of Catan, focuses more on economics than outright military dominance. Build roads and settlement, or, if you must, a juggernaut of an army. Players are rewarded for completing any of numerous objectives and the game is won by the first to reach 10 victory points. If there’s one thing to take away from this feature, its that everyone could use more German board games in their closet.
