Wii gamers nationwide who find themselves searching for something fun to play with three other people may have eyed last week's release of Midway Games' "Game Party 2."
"Game Party 2" features a mix of 10 different group games, including darts, arcade-style basketball shooting, trivia and a Wii version of beer pong. While the game has many different events to take part in, the variety can be somewhat deceiving. Most of the games, such as horseshoes, lawn darts and beanbag toss, consist of the same arm-swinging toss, simply with different items and targets. These games can be somewhat boring, since you merely "throw" the horseshoe or the beanbag a few times and then watch the other player do the same. You also have to watch the other virtual partiers celebrate whenever someone does well, an aspect of the game that you wish you could just skip entirely.
Some of the other games, however, are much more entertaining. In shuffleboard, you must jab your Wii remote forward to send a little puck to the end of the board, hoping it's far enough to get just to the end without falling off. It is hard enough to be fun, but the fact that you can have an effect on the other player's score by knocking their pucks off the board makes it a much more competitive game.
Darts, arguably the hardest game, is also quite fun, offering a handful of different kinds of darts to play - baseball, 301 or highest score, to name a few. It's extremely hard to throw the darts straight, and up to four people can play at once. It may break if you actually throw something at it, but the little on-screen dartboard is certainly a good substitute for the one at the bar most students can't get into.
Trivia is another one of the game's highpoints. Players answer a variety of questions in categories such as sports, movies and history, and the quickest player to choose the correct answer gets points. The player with the most points gets to spin the virtual question wheel and after 10 rounds of three questions the game is over.
Other options include arcade-style football and basketball games, in which you throw the ball by making a throwing action with the controller in hand. These games are fun since they are much faster-paced than most of the others.
The different game plays may be the best offering "Game Party 2." You can get a group of friends together for bracket play, which allows five people to compete in an elimination tournament of any of the games. This is a great option because it allows multiple people to be involved in a short amount of time.
While you can create your own character, it's quite disappointing that this game does not incorporate Miis. One of the many wonders of Wii Sports is that you're playing against your friends' Miis, even when they're not actually playing. "Game Party 2" only gives you choices of face, hair and clothing.
"Game Party 2" does its best to create a party environment for the times when you may not have the space to do so yourself. Ping cup - the game's take on beer pong - could certainly be useful when there's no space for a pong table or if you run out of cups. While many of the games have nearly the same point but different graphics, there are a few things that make this $29.99 purchase worthwhile. This is one of the few Wii multiplayer games that is geared at young adults that wish to socialize instead of stare at a game screen for hours on end. And if you've found yourself searching for a game suitable for a group of antsy friends, the "Game Party 2" games that are fun may make the purchase worthwhile.
You can contact this staff writer at kbogosian@theeagleonline.com
