So, I acquired both of the Dima produced CD-i Mini Game collections, Family Games I and Family Games II: Junk Food Jive. Time to see if either is a good pick…
Family Games I
Gameplay: 3/5 – The UI and controls are essentially very simple but I wouldn’t describe it as particularly fun. Most of the games are very rudimentary children’s titles and the rest are either barely functional or just not much fun to play for a lengthy period of time. However, the controls aren’t bad by any means.
Graphics: 3/5 – The game has an eclectic array of visual styles from sort of clean and professional to simply god awful and messy. The graphic style of each game does fit it well, but the lack of coherence is a little stunning. It’s as if all the games were made by different companies and resultedly look like a mess.
Animation: 2/5 – A real low for the CD-i, the cutscenes aren’t even animated with most just being slide-shows. In-game animations are fairly smooth, whenever there is any animation (which is rarely).
Music: 2½/5 – Of course this game wouldn’t be complete without the “CD-i curse”, meaning that games which have music have no sound-effects and vice versa. So many of the games are just plain silent that even the little bit of music isn’t enough in my eyes. Full Attack’s theme actually sounds awesome, it’s just a shame you die less than a minute into the level so you don’t really have time to enjoy it. I quite like the themes in Wizard as well, but that is mostly it for the musical output.
Sound: 3/5 – Of course, the sound-effects are nice and clean but unfortunately most of the games are so slow-paced you rarely get to hear them – or you just hear the same sound-effects over and over again. The sound-effects don’t irk me as much as the lack of music does though, so half a point for that.
Replay value: 2/5 – When literally the best games in the collection are versions of Hangman, Memory, a tile-swapping game and Pong – you’ve really hit rock bottom. The game even has the world’s least kinetic version of space-invaders (Morphon Invasion) where you shoot alien clown heads. It’s fun for at least a little while due to the sheer absurdity, but Full Attack (which on the surface seems like a decent shoot-em-up) is just infuriatingly hard. Jokinsen feels weirdly out-of-place in this collection with its large levels, it could have maybe been released as a stand-alone game as it gets drowned in the other ones. But it’s barely much better than the rest of the games.
Score: 52% – For a mini-game collection, Family Games offers very little actual gameplay content. One of the games is a Paint-program and one of them you can’t lose. There’s at least a multiplayer option for Hangman and Memory via just one controller, but this collection is not particularly entertaining…
Family Games II
Gameplay: 3½/5 – While the controls aren’t vastly better than Family Games II, I should give credit that Zipp has a bit more lee-way on getting hit. The games are all pretty self-explanatory. Mortal Pong requires a second controller for multiplayer (obviously) but Exploding Pizza can actually be played by up to 4 players with one-controller which is swell. Also, there’s some other fun options for most games.
Graphics: 4/5 – A slight step up from the first game, the graphics now have a consistent cartoony aesthetic which I like. The game doesn’t exactly look stunning but little details and levels of polish on the UI make it much more pleasant to look at than Family Games I. Also, all the games have distinctive Game Over and Congratulations graphics, which makes them stand out from the very generic ones in the first collection.
Animation: 4/5 – This is a huge step-up with three of the five games having distinctive animated opening cutscenes. There’s still a lot of still-image transitions, but the game definitely feels more lively, plus there’s a lot more incidental animation.
Music: 3½/5 – The music sounds really nice and this time around all the games actually have music which is already a huge plus over the first collection. Unfortunately, the games also force you to choose between having music or sound-effects which kinda sucks. However, the music is also much better than the first game which is nice although, it feels that Doom Service’s music loop just restarts the song halfway through.
Sound: 3/5 – About the same as the first game. There’s a lot more human voices, but this doesn’t really amp up the audio real estate by that much. As mentioned above, the collection regularly forces you to choose between music and sound-effects, which is annoying (except Zipp doesn’t even have sound effects).
Replay value: 3/5 – I find Doom Service weirdly addicting even if the game is literally just about finding keys. Mortal Pong is actually very entertaining thanks to its animations, music and sound-effects (again, you get to pick only 2 of 3). Exploding Pizza was surprisingly my favourite entry. The 4-player multiplayer with one controller was a surprise but a delightful one. Even though it’s a very simple concept it’s also the best game of the collection simply for its sheer length. The drawing game’s inclusion still feels weird and out-of-place, as it did in Family Games I. I really wanted to give Zipp a fair chance (just like Full Attack), but the game is not just unfairly hard but annoying in how items in the middle of exploding can kill you (and because the level layouts are a mess).
Score: 70% – Family Games II is a huge step up from its predecessor in presentation. There are still only three games worth playing which is a shame, but Exploding Pizza really is worth the price alone. It doesn’t offer as much variety as the first collection but also doesn’t have as many broken or boring games as the first collection. Decently enjoyable.
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