4 Classic games in One collection - great stuff (Monopoly / Boggle / Yahtzee / Battleship (DS))

Member Name: valve90210

Product:	Monopoly / Boggle / Yahtzee / Battleship (DS)
Date:	18/07/08 (52 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: 4 strong games which have lasted a long time for a reason

Disadvantages: Slight control problems with Boggle and Monopoly is a bit hard to follow

When I saw this game was coming out I was really pleased because I am a big fan of Yahtzee and Boggle and I quite enjoy a game of Monopoly, so i figured this would be perfect for me.

My first port of call was Boggle. Boggle for anyone who doesn't know is a word game where by you have several dice with letters on. they are shaken up and end up laid out in a square. Then you have to try to find as many words within the letters as you can within the time limit. The letters of each word have to be next to each other either directly or diagonally. The longer the word, the more you score.

There are a handful of different game modes to choose from which gives some nice variation to help the life span of the game. You have classic mode whereby you have a timer and try to find as many words as you can within the time limit.

There is a word finder mode whereby you have no time limit and try to find as many words as you possibly can within the grid, taking as long as you like.

There is also a mode whereby you are presented with a list of all the words in the grid and you have to try to find as many of them as you can within the time limit.

The method by which you select the words is simply tapping each letter with the stylus and then double tapping the last letter.

I really enjoyed playing this and have continued to play it fro some months now as each game is different and it's quite good fun trying to beat your best scores.

I do have a couple of slight niggles. Firstly the dictionary of words that the game uses has some rather odd omissions, while I can't think of any as write this review (how typical), there have been several occasions where I have selected an everyday word only to be told that it's not in the dictionary.

My second slight gripe is with the selection of letters. For some reason the games judgin of where you have touched with the stylus is a bit temperamental. Sometimes it will work perfectly, but other times it doesn't register that you've tapped a letter or it will say you've tapped a different letter to the one you've tapped....sometimes a letter not even close by... This can be a bit frustrating at times especiallt if you are playing a timed game and only have a few seconds left and have noticed several more words.

On the whole though my gripes are not enough to detract too much from the game, which is helped by being a faithful recreation of a great game with great longevity and gameplay.

Next I tried Yahtzee. Yahtzee is a dice based game whereby you have 3 attempts to make up specific series of numbers on the dice, for example as many 4s as you can with the 5 dice, 3 of a kind, 4 of a kind, straights and the more often than not elusive 5 of a kind Yahtzee.

The game is in essense a game of chance because you never know what number will come up on the dice when you roll them, but there is certainly skill involved as you have to chose what you are going to try for, and where to put your scores. This makes the game ewasy to pick up but also enough depth to keep you coming back for more.

This is a decent version of the game, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Next up was Battleships. I'm sure everybody knows what Battleships is, a turn based game whereby you decide where a on grid to hide you ships and then take turns with your opponent in choosing a square on the grid to hit in an attempt to destroy all of your opponents ships.

This again was a very satifsfactory version of a great game, control was simple and the game play from the computer fairly random and logical.

Lastly I gave Monopoly a go. Now, everybody knows this game, and knows that it can take quite some time to play. I did wonder how this would translate on to a game on the DS. I ahve to say, while everything seemed to be in place, it was a hard game to play as it was quite diffidcult to keep track of what the computer players where doing and also to keep track of all your property and money. Not only that but it really is a long game still and I found that it was hard to concentrate for very long. In the end I gave up and went back to playing Boggle

My over all view of this 4 game pack is that it is great value for money, with 4 big name games in one collection, and certainly very addictive. For me the stand out game is Boggle because it is quick, easy to play and very very addictive. The weak point is Monopoly, due to the lengthy nature of the game.

Summary: If you like the games, then it's a must have!!!