Clubhouse Games

"An overlooked title that's one of the best and most fun out there"

Clubhouse Games, at first, seems like a game most people wouldn't give a second look to. At first, I didn't. I mean, it does seem remarkable. There have been plenty of games that just throw some cards games and chess and checkers and such together. What makes this special? Well, just about everything. Clubhouse Games is one of the best values in DS games, even if you're paying $30.00 for it. It's worth every penny.

Simply put, Clubhouse Games gives you your money's worth. With forty two games, there's a LOT to do.

GRAPHICS
Obviously a game like this isn't going to have groundbreaking graphics on the DS, but they're very nice. The table looks like a real playing table in card games, the cards look how they're supposed to, the different boards look good. They look like the real thing, which is a good and helps you feel more like you're really playing the game.

SOUND
The sound was very nicely done. Some nice music plays during the games, and different music plays depending on the game. There's a really catchy tune that plays when you're playing a Japanese game like Koi-Koi, Shogi, etc. The music also speeds up when a player is close to victory. The sound in this game is worth turning on.

GAMEPLAY
Exceptional gameplay in this game. Everything is stylus-controlled, with very little button use (Start to pause, R to change order of cards, D-Pad to move the board in a few games). While I'm sure there are people who would've liked a button mode, the stylus works fine, and feels like you're actually playing the games for the most part.

The game is split into categories. Basic Card Games, Intermediate Card Games, Advanced Card Games, Basic Board Games, Advanced Board Games, Variety Games, Action Games and Single-Player games. The categories are pretty self-explanatory. There are 42 games total, so basically, you paid pennies for each one. Though to be honest, there are a handful that I'd rather get the change for. Not all games are winners, the main two games being Pig (which makes very little sense) and Shogi (a "Japanese Chess" game which is hard for non-Japanese players as the pieces will not look distinctive). Other than that, a majority of these games are fun to play.

Most well-known games are here of all sorts. A player could pick up this game because of one game, and end up liking many. There are classic board games like Chess, checkers, Chinese Checkers and Backgammon, card games of all sorts, and, very surprisingly, games like Billiards, Bowling and Darts, which were three great additions. The mixture of games is almost perfect, as you won't end up having to play many games you find too similar.

The game has three single player modes: Free Play, where you simply pick a game and play, with plenty of changeable settings; Stamp Mode, where you play through the games to earn stamps, once three stamps are earned for one game you move onto the next; and Mission Mode, where you have to do a specific task in a game to unlock a new icon. While Free Play and Stamp Mode are fine, Mission Mode could've been done better. Many missions are simply too hard (such as a perfect Hashami Shogi win, 150 points in Koi-Koi, sinking three balls at once in Billiards, among others). This could've been done better to better suit players of all experience and age - I couldn't imagine a 12-year old doing half the missions, or a person in their forties either. Other than the gripes with Mission Mode, the Stamp Mode works great and lets you play all the games and get new unlockables. It can be annoying when you have to repeat a game you don't like, but you don't have to actually win a game to move on, so if you get stuck, you can just keep trying and then go on to the next game.

One of the best features - WiFi. You can play online with players worldwide. With this many games, there's plenty you can do. There are also pre-set chat sentences you can use (such as Good Luck!, Nice, Good Move and so on). You also can choose an icon to represent you, with more being unlockable in Mission Mode. However, I feel this game really shines when you play with a friend online, as you and your friend can create a room and play as many games as you want, and actually chat over a PictoChat-like input, which also gives you various colors to write and draw in. If you have a friend with this game and WiFi, you can spend hours doing this.

OVERALL
I give Clubhouse Games a big thumbs up. While it's not outstandingly popular, it's a great value and a good game to have in your DS between the big releases you're looking forward to. It has great pick-up-and-play value, and is fun for gamers of almost any age, and you really get your money's worth of games. The WiFi game adds twice as much playability to this game. Overall a great DS game amongst many disappointing ones. It's worth every penny.

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Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/15/07