Title Carnival Games Date 10.12.2007 Genre Games Platform Wii Developer Global Star Software Publisher Take 2 Interactive

Carnival Games is a good estimation of what its like to play real carnival games at either an amusement park, a county/state fair, or just about any other situation that would have carnival-style games in it. I say estimation because it still isn't very close in some aspects to the real deal. Some of the mini-games really feel "dumbed" down from the real deal, while some feel excessively hard.

Multiplayer vs. Single Player
Carnival Games has 2 different gameplay modes, a single player quest to amass tickets, and a multiplayer quest to challenge your friends with your ring toss skills. In single player your job is use the tickets you earn winning games to purchase prizes, different looks for your in-game avatar, and play the arcade machines to win prizes or more tickets. In the multiplayer, your job is to own your buds as hard as you possibly can in either 2 sub-modes.

Single Player can get very dull and repetitive after a while. Throwing a ball into a basket gets very boring after a while. Its fun for maybe the first 5 hours, but after you've earned 500 some tickets and unlocked a majority of the content (yes it is that easy to unlock the content that quickly) what do you really want to play for?

Multiplayer mode, however, is where this game shines. Challenging your friends and family can really make a night fun. These games are also simple enough that your mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, ex-wife, or whoever is at your party can enjoy the game with very little effort. People just have to know what the A and B buttons are and know what motion is needed to play the game. Finally, be sure that you're using the first controller so you don't have to explain to your Grandma how to set it up (also be sure if your using multiple remotes, to select that, I overlooked that feature the first time and wondered why only the first remote worked).

On the multiplayer front, this game would also have really benefited from full WiiConnect24 support for those times you couldn't go to your friend's house to play this, and you really didn't want to play against the AI for virtual tickets and prizes. Even limited WC24 support would have helped in the form of sending prizes/tickets to friends as gifts, etc. While playing this solo, in the back of my head I was thinking “Damn, I wish I could play my friend without having to drive over to his house.” But alas, no WiiConnect24 support at all.

Graphics and Sound
The graphic detail in Carnival Games is either about on par or slightly lower than what is expected on a Wii. Really nothing over the top, such as Metroid Prime 3, but nothing downright insulting to the console (I won't give names). The overall visual quality is good enough to play the game for what it was meant for without being distracted with overly fuzzy textures or the clipping of objects. The graphics in this game, however, is nothing to write home about.

The sound in Carnival Games feels natural, again nothing over the top that would say "wow the really worked hard on this."

Gameplay
The games provided in Carnival Games are typical for any carnival, faire, or amusement park you may have attended. The screen that appears before you start clearly explains the controls of the game in plain English, with a demonstration of the action required on the Wii Remote. The game also has a voice over that explains the rules of the game, and this is also what is written before you start. The mini-games are very easy to understand, however, so even someone new to the Wii can figure out what to do quickly with some brief instruction.

Controls
With games on the Wii, the controls are usually the root of the game, and this game is no exception. The Wii controls work well in some of the mini-games, and not so well in other mini-games. The biggest issue is this game isn't very friendly for left-handed players, especially for Ring Toss. This could have been easily corrected by the developer by just adding a left handed option to the game for the minority of people out there that are left-handed and prefer to use the Wii Remote in their left hands. Wii Sports has this feature, why not other games?

Other issues with the Wii Remote are the accidental triggering of an action, which can be very frustrating. For example, your using 1 remote so 2 people can play "Alley Ball" (Carnival Game's equivalent of Skeeball) its easy to trigger a ball throw while loosing and removing the strap, giving it to the second player, and putting on the wrist-strap. This could have easily been corrected by having a screen during “1 remote” multiplayer mode to have a “Press A” to start screen every time the remote changes hands. Also more control could have been added within the Wii remote's motion sensing. As far as I could tell, the amount of "spin" I put on the remote while throwing the ball had no impact on the overall throw, at least in Alley ball, which is disappointing. It makes me too reliably able to score in the 100 point hole, in my opinion. Good news about the Wii Remote controls in Carnival Games is that the controls currently in the game don't have a “tacked on” feeling in most cases.

Overall, this game felt like it could use more polishing, and probably some more thought on the Single Player. Even putting in a storyline in the Single Player would have made it more interesting, if it was something dumb. Really, this is a game where only 1 person in your group of "Wii Buds" really needs to have, just bring your remotes to your next Wii party and let the fun commence.

This game gets at C+ really because the multiplayer is good, if the single player would have been equally good in some what, it would have scored higher. It's a good party game for the budget gamer, but really not for anything else.

Game Score

C+

Reviewed By: Contributed