Amazingly, for a series we thought could only go downhill after a lackluster debut, the second Family Game Night is a little better than the first. Yes, that’s right – ‘better’. But also only &lsq⭕uo;a little’.

The games selected for the Wii treatment this time are far more suited to console jiggery-pokery. Connect 4x4, Operation, Bop It, Jenga and Pictureka are the latest recipients of a digital makeover. Instruction-barking Bop Itﷺ translates fairly well into remote waggles (even if they don’🐽t always register), and the seek ’n’ solvey Pictureka suits remote-pointing.

Connect 4x4 (Connect 4 🐟but with two layers of counters) only really feels the benefit of being on ♚Wii in its Remix mode, where impossible-in-the-real-world powerups come into play. (All five games have a Remix mode, which adds new challenges.) The tactile fun of real Operation and Jenga is lost in the digital switchover, but at least the Operation controls are well-suited and the Jenga physics are fairly reliable. Snippets of all five games can be played in a high-score mode for players with goldfish-like attention spans.

With less Mr. Potato Head an﷽d plenty of customization options, this is a more appealing package than the first Game Night and costs less than buyin♎g all five board games. So why’s it only ‘a little’ better than before? Well, it’s dull in single-player; Jenga controls are annoying; Operation gets boring very quickly; the Bop It voice is as irritating as ever; we miss the Operation man’s light-up nose; and we miss the faff of setting up Connect 4. It’s just not the same *sigh*.

Nov 20, 2009