Wednesday, January 7, 2009

More Boardgames Coming to XBLA

And here's the list:

Boggle, Battleship, Yahtzee, Connect Four, Sorry! and Sorry! Sliders will begin to roll out in Spring 2009.

Yip. Eee.

Look, I like a good kid's game as much as anyone because I have a kid. That helps. And I love Catan on XBLA. Ticket to Ride remains a decent time killer. Lost Cities has crap AI and you need to play that against another human. Carcassonne's not bad either.

But Connect Four? Really?

Aren't those games best played with your kid...at a table? Will people actually play Connect Four with their kid on XBL?

The reason why so many boardgamers were happy to see Catan on XBLA was because finding players is tough. If you don't have a regular game group, getting together to play a BG is a bitch.

Hey dad -- pay the $10 and buy a copy of SORRY. Set it up with the kid. Face to face time, dad. Get the 360 controller out of his hand and play a tangible game. I doubt 7 year old Sally is living across town so you're forced to go the XB Live route.

All of these great licenses and great boardgames that you know the pubs would love to see ported to Xbox 360 format, and we're back to Sorry? The plus here is that Sorry Sliders is pretty cool. But I dunno how well it will translate.

What about the XBLA version of Railroad Tycoon...or even the BG version of Age of Empires III? Or Nexus Ops? That would translate VERY well I think. Pandemic would, too. Lots would.
I want a XBLA version of Tigris and Euphrates so I can figure out how the damn thing works.

I know that these Hasbro games will get a lot of people to say, "Hey look -- it's Sorry! And BOGGLE! and Battleship!! I doubt people would impulse buy Nexus Ops. (They should. It's great.)

But throw us boardgamers a bone, guys.