Cranium Kabookii Review - 3/10
The term 'Family game night' was not a phrase used often in my childhood, and on the rare occassion that a family game did ensue, it was often ended promptly by a squabble or a tantrum.
However, if you're one of those people who love to sit down with the family and giggle the night away with a series of bite sized 'family' games, you might have thought about giving Cranium Kabookii a whirl.
If I were asked to describe
Cranium Kabookii in just three words, I would have to be pretty ruthless. Corny, boring, and dissapointing are all that I feel are really needed to sum up this game.
Although presented with a wicked idea and a stable starting point in the form of the previously established board game:
'Cranium', the game really wasn't developed to reach its potential.
Considering this wasnt a game with a massive amount of content to sink your teeth into, nor one that won my favour, I've decided to review it by narrowing down just to the nitty gritty:
The Game:
To start with, this game requires a minimum of four people to function properly. You can have more, with the choice offered as to how many groups of people you have, however considering you need at least two 'teams', that immediately starts the bidding at four.
The idea behind the game is to get a night of family fun happening, participate in some wacky mini-games and answer some trivia. Guided by the signature
Cranium characters: Data Head, Star Performer, Creative Cat, and Word Worm, teams will be confronted with a continuous selection of the 15 different puzzles, until a winning team is announced.
Your goal? For your team to be the first to gain 24 game tokens, which will enable you to rise above your competition and yank on a pull cord in order to light up a 'Kabookii' sign in the sky.
Gameplay and Controls:
To kick things off players will need to choose their 'country'. However, Australia is NOT one of the options, so for those of us seeking an English speaking option, we are presented with two alternatives: the USA, and the UK. This wouldnt be a big issue in most games, however the questions in
Cranium Kabookii are altered to be more specific to the country you choose, so you may want to choose the nation you know the most about.
There are 15 different puzzle types in
Cranium Kabookii.
This includes:
Polygraph- a true/false style quiz round.
Memoroll - based on the classic memory testing games. Memorize the pattern, and re-create it.
Globetrotter - "Find the chilly country whose capital is Reykjavik" and point it out on a 3D globe.
Cameo - Act out the scenes you see on screen,
and
Zelpuz - Re-arrange the letters to find the winning word based on your clue, for eg: Victorian Scribe? Answer: Charles Dickens
I found the instructions in some of these games to be a little unclear, and the motion controls in games like 'Cameo' were shocking.
In the end, despite the variety of puzzles seemingly offered, it was really as though spinning the game carousel to select the puzzles was the most fun i had in the game.
Replay Value:
I gave this game about four run-throughs, although i was bored of it by game two.
In a team or family environment the game will most likey last you a bit longer, however for me, there was nothing that made me wanna stick around or strive for.
Graphics:
The graphics were really the part of this game which pushed my score from a 2/10, to a 3/10.
Vivid colour and simple but cool cartoon graphics made the game in the very least, easy on the eyes.
Sound:
The in-game music of
Cranium Kabookii followed a french sideshow/carnival theme, and wasnt all that noticeable, but not unpleasant either. The sound effects weren't bad, however they were very basic.
In the end, the only way i could think to end this review was with a comment like: "Im sorry Ubisoft, EPIC PHAIL!" But I decided I would be more tactful than that in order to spare the hard working game makers' feelings.
Oh.. uh.. Wait!...
Well, now that i've gotten that out of the way, I have to say I can't help but feel that this game should not have been made.
And, if it was absoluetly destined to hit the shelves, there was alot about this game that could have been improved to make it worth buying.
That said, I'm sure i'll come across worse games in the future, and, if you really have a hankering to try out this game, you should go ahead and give it a rent.
You never know, YOU may love it!
Thanks for reading
Magickstar
Submitted by magickstar
25/06/2008
114
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