"FoBiA's Freakin' Review"

When I was carelessly wandering through my local Target Store one day, Ultimate Brain Games caught my ever-so-watchful eye. It yelled to me "Buy me, for I have eight classic games all generously wrapped up into one fine package!" Of course, since I am trusting and obviously stupid for listening to a talking video game, I bought the said game. Now, a few weeks down the road from the initial purchase date, am I satisfied?

Graphics

I figured I would get this category out of the way first, as graphics aren't a big part of a game like this. The graphics are actually a lot more than I expected from Ultimate Brain Games. With nearly all of the games you get multiple views of the gameplay boards. All of the boards are clearly visible, and easy to use. My only real complaint here was Mahjong. It is difficult to play a game like Mahjong on a tiny screen. Sometimes you might catch yourself squinting to make out a tile. Overall though, you will more than likely never really notice the graphics, as they aren't a major part of the game.

Sound

Other than the usual 'click' and 'beep' sounds used to represent you selecting something, there are no real major sound effects. The battleship (called Sink Ships in the game) game has a cannon sound, which I believe is the only non-selection sound in the game. However, think how annoying it would be if there were 'supa cool soundfx' for something like getting jumped in checkers. "BOING KABOOM!!!! JUMP'D!!!!" It would get annoying fast. The sound effects are perfect for this game. As for the music, I literally laughed when I first popped in my copy with the audio blaring. The music is.... well.... corny, so to speak. It ranges from something that sounds like an 80's techno mix, to something that sounds like someone hitting something metal with another person playing violin in the background. Oh, and let's not forget the "WHOO-HOO" sound effect in one of the background music titles. At a seemingly random time you can hear what appears to be some guy going "WHOO-HOO" during the song. It's loud, so you can't miss it. I almost jumped the first time I heard it. Now, however, the music is starting to grow on me. Some of the beats are catchy, and get you humming along with them. If you buy the game and don't like the music, don't fret, you can turn it off. WHOO-HOO!

Gameplay

This is what this game was made for. Eight (8) classic titles all wrapped up into one pint-sized GBA cart. You get checkers, chess, battleship, mahjong, backgammon, reversi, dominoes, and connect four. Not only do you get eight great titles, but you also get a plethora of options and a face creator to go with it. Literally, there are tons of options. You can tinker with everything from sound effects and music volume to which player is which on the board, and what perspective to view the board at. There are numerous difficulties, and surprisingly, the game does indeed get quite difficult. Think you're the king of checkers? Think again. The computer in this game can be utterly ruthless, depending on what difficulty you have it on.

Another thing that really surprised me was the fact that there are in-game demos and manuals that literally teach you how to play a game. I'll admit it, I never learned how to play chess. After buying this game though, I not only learned how to play chess, I got to see it being played so I can oversee the flow of the game after reading through the in-game "how to play" option. So if your knowledge of one or more of the games included in this package is shying you away from buying it, don't let it.

Replayability

Duuhhrr, this game is built off replayability, so it has lots of it. Enough said.

Conclusion

I picked my copy up for $20 at Target, but I would gladly play the full $30 for it after playing it. If chess, checkers, or any other of the games mentioned are your thing, don't pass this one up.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/08/04