Club House Games – First Play

Games have always been a great social activity to enjoy with friends and family. Sometimes the games are light and casual; sometimes they are intense and competitive, but they are enjoyed all the same. I fondly remember playing Memory and Line Connect in Elementary school, the card games President and Hearts during lunch in junior high school, Chess in high school, and Poker in university. The nostalgia and pure simple gameplay I associate with these games leads me to grab Club House Games, a title that brings a wide variety of classic games to the DS for the touch generation to experience.

Excited to get right into playing, the first thing I do once I start Club House Games is head over to the worldwide Nintendo Wi-Fi connection and take a look at the list of available games. They are sorted by type in a slick interface and I’m actually a little overwhelmed by how many choices there are; I count 39 games split between card games, board games, variety games, and action games. The card game President grabs my eye and I tap it to search for opponents.

After half a minute 3 players populate the screen and we’re ready to begin. The top screen shows a summary of the current state of play including a view of the opponents’ hands; the bottom screen shows my hand and the active cards being played on the table. As the play shifts to my turn, I try to recall how to play President: Do I play by suit, is there a trump card? I notice that there is a rules button at the bottom right and I tap it to browse through the instructions.

The rules are well articulated with diagrams illustrating salient points for clarity. To prevent the other players from getting too irate, I quickly return from the rules to continue play. When I return, there is a pop-up telling me to play a card or choose to pass. Another thing that catches my eyes is that some of my cards are flashing. The flashing cards are the ones that are legal to play on the currently active stack of cards. Club House Games is clearly well designed to facilitate play for casual players and for those who need a little extra help.

With a couple deft strokes on the touch screen we have a new President, me. To gloat appropriately I click on the chat button at the bottom of the screen. The chat interface looks a little complicated, you can choose the color and size of your text, the shape of your text bubble, and even an emoticon face. Unfortunately however, for the content of your message you are limited to 22 choices including “Nooooo!”, “Good luck”, and “I will try my best”. Supposedly you are able to use Pictochat for local wireless games, but in order to prevent strangers from drawing threatening images, Club House Games constrains communications online. Still, I manage to communicate successfully with the other players; we agree that it was a “Good game!” and that we will stick around to play “One more!” game of President.

After a couple more hands of President, I have a little trouble finding additional players. 5 minutes of searching results in a message stating that I should try another game or try later. Texas Hold’em sounds like it should be a popular game just teeming with players and sure enough 3 players show up almost immediately - only to disappear. I realize now that the online interface for finding games to play is not very well designed. The problem is that if you want to play a game online, then you have to hunt and try each game until you find one popular enough that you find opponents in a reasonable amount of time. There is no way to meet in a room with other players and choose a game, nor is there any indication of how many people are waiting to play a certain game without waiting yourself. During the waiting I notice how annoying the background music is. What’s really terrible about it is that it occasionally bleeps as if a player has joined, but unfortunately that is just part of the music. Nonetheless, it doesn’t take many attempts before I find another player to engage in a battle of Texas Hold’em, in which I promptly lose all my chips.

Having finished my first foray into the Nintendo Wi-Fi world of multiplayer Club House Games, I decide to explore the single player mode. There are three modes: “Free Play”, “Stamp”, and “Mission”. Free Play is a way to play unlocked games, Stamp lets you collect stamps by playing through games and in turn unlock other games, and Mission has you play through games attempting to meet certain conditions (win 500 chips in Blackjack). Having unlocked absolutely nothing up to this point, Stamp sounds like a good choice.

Stamp mode shows 5 levels of games, ranging from the simple game Soda Shake where you take turns shaking a bottle of soda and hope it doesn’t pop on you, to more complex games like Memory. At this point I can’t see what all the games are because they are hidden until I reach their stage, but I can see the pattern - a linear path like Candy Land but with games to clear at every step. I complete the first level of games fairly easily, and it is fun to learn how to play them again. Games like Old Maid, I Doubt It, Spit, and Word Balloon (think Hangman) bring back memories, although they are not quite as fun playing with the computer opponents.

Club House Games has delivered a great experience so far, despite the occasional trouble in finding opponents online and raking at my ears because of horrible and repetitive music. The game interfaces look and feel great, it’s easy enough to turn off the music, and the game seems to offer so many experiences. I’m definitely looking forward to engaging in more online Nintendo Wi-Fi games and clearing another level or two of Stamp mode.