Clubhouse Games Express: Family Favorites

Genre: Compilation / Card Game / Board Games

Players: 1-8 Competitive (Local Wireless), 4 Team Competitive (Local Wireless), Download Play Supported

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Review:

Clubhouse Games was originally released on the Nintendo DS in 2006, and was a Compilation containing 42 simple Card Games, Board Games, and Arcade Games. The game would go on to be such a critical and commercial success that Nintendo would produce a sequel on the Nintendo Switch, Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics (I liked that game quite a bit – I gave it a B+ grade in my review!). However, in the time between those two releases, in 2009 we got three games on the Nintendo DSi via the DSiWare service in the Clubhouse Games Express line. These are not new games, but rather small portions of the original Clubhouse Games release on DS that have been cut apart from the rest of the game, had features removed (no more online play!), and sold on the Nintendo DSiWare shop and the Nintendo 3DS eShop for $5 each.

Out of curiosity, I took a trip over to ebay.com and looked to see what it would cost to get a copy of the original Nintendo DS release of Clubhouse Games in used but playable condition, including shipping costs. The result? $6. That’s right, you can pay $5 each for three DSiWare releases which, together, constitute one-third of the contents of this game, or you can pay $6 to get the entire game on a cartridge that plays perfectly fine on your Nintendo 3DS via backwards-compatibility.

You’re seriously still reading after that? You still want an actual review of this rip-off of an eShop game?

~sigh~ Fine…

Clubhouse Games Express: Family Favorites contains five games that are a combination of Card Games and Board Games that can be played against AI opponents of varying difficulty or human opponents, with download play supported. Those five games are: Hearts, Contract Bridge, Dominoes, Dots and Boxes, and Ludo (elsewhere known as Pachisi/Parcheesi)

These games are presented using decent but simple 2D pixel art visuals, and with a few selections of energetic background music that can get a bit annoying over time. Overall, this is nothing special, but it works well enough for the presentation of the game.

As for the games themselves, you’ll be playing these games using touchscreen controls, and the versions of the games here seem to be mostly surprisingly decent.

Hearts and Contract Bridge are two Card Games I’m not terribly familiar with, but they seem to be adequately represented here.

Dominoes (and just to be clear, that’s the game, not the fun activity where you set them standing up to tip them over) actually includes five different variants – 5 Up, Block, Draw, Muggins, and Sniff. I’m actually a bit impressed that the game includes these options, since most Dominoes games just go with the default rules (which I believe are 5 Up).

Dots and Boxes is a pen and paper game that I always feel odd about seeing in these sorts of game collections, because literally anyone with a pen and paper and a friend can play this game. It’s represented well enough here, but it almost seems pointless to include it.

Ludo works well enough, but the strict adherence to the rules means that you’ll be wasting a lot of time looking at dice rolls that aren’t a six and result in nothing happening. This game doesn’t even let you use the touchscreen to simulate rolling the dice yourself – the moment you tap it the game does it for you.

Overall, I think that the games included here are mostly done right, though I feel like a few of these games being “done right” is almost a disservice to them.

However, even if you still want to play this version of these games after that… glowing description… then you’re still better off just getting a copy of the Nintendo DS version of Clubhouse Games. Simply put, there is absolutely no reason you should buy Clubhouse Games Express: Family Favorites, unless you’re an idiot like me who’s writing a bunch of reviews before the Nintendo 3DS eShop shuts down. Don’t do that. Don’t be like me.

tl;dr – Clubhouse Games Express: Family Favorites contains somewhat dubious versions of Hearts, Contract Bridge, Dominoes, Dots and Boxes, and Ludo (Pachisi/Parcheesi). Even if you wanted to play these games, this release is a total rip-off, because you can get the entire game these titles were ripped from for almost the exact same price. If you want to play these games on Nintendo 3DS, don’t buy Clubhouse Games Express, just get the original Nintendo DS version of Clubhouse Games instead.

Grade: F

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