Published: Monday, 19th May, 2008 12:00
Ultimate Board Game Collection
By Narin Bahar
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There is a school of thought that if you fancy playing a board game you should, in fact, just go and get out a board game. But to do that would miss out a surprisingly engaging game which has seen me while away hours without even realising it.
However, The Ultimate Board Game Collection doesn't do exactly what it says on the tin. For me the ultimate board games, those family classics, are your Monopoly, Cluedo and Scrabble - all of which have pesky licensing issues which means they're not included here.
Instead you get a plethora of other games including chess, draughts, backgammon, battleships, Sudoku (I know it's not a childhood staple but it's still fun), jigsaws, dice, and anagrams among others.
Just like that compendium of games your grandparents always kept for wet Sunday afternoons, some of the games are better than others - and it's all a matter of personal taste. For me the games I kept coming back to were backgammon, Othello (in one of my bugbears of the game everything is very Americanised, so it's actually called 'Reversi' here, while draughts is down as 'Checkers') and Mahjong.
The games are all simple - if this was a ready meal it would be at the value end of the spectrum. No flashy graphics, the music isn't great (although with the PSP one you can import your own soundtrack which is brilliant) but don't let that put you off.
The PSP version (which is the one we tested) is good value and perfect for long journeys as we start getting into holiday season. If you plump for the handheld version rather than going with a console you also get more for your money - the PSP version has 24 games as opposed to 20 for the PS2 and 12 for the Wii.
Three stars.
* Ultimate Board Game Collection is out now on Wii, PSP and PS2.
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