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Cranium: Kabookii Review for the Nintendo Wii

Cranium: Kabookii Review for the Nintendo Wii

The Board Game Comes to Your Wii!

If you are unaware of the Cranium board games, then trust me, you are missing out. These board games have been helping family game night come to life for the past few years. They don’t just involve throwing dice or spinning a spinner to reach a goal, the Cranium games invited families to move around and think of creative ways to solve puzzles in order to progress in the game. Families would have to draw, mold or act out certain prompts, in addition to answering some orthodox trivia questions along the way. The game really is a great family experience, and I heartily recommend it to families who enjoy spending time together playing board games and don’t mind acting pretty silly.

Cranium: Kabookii screenshot

The premise of the Cranium series actually lent itself to the world of video gaming pretty well, in theory. I mean, you’ve got a game here that encourages moving around and solving puzzles. Sounds like a perfect fit for the Wii, right? Well, this title is pretty hit-or-miss with several facets, but one thing’s for sure: Cranium Kabookii fails to capture the magic of the original board game. It does a pretty good job of re-creating the micro game feel of the board game, but something was fundamentally lost in translation here.

The way the game works is you work in teams and take turns spinning a giant wheel. This wheel will reveal a mini-game that a member of your team will have to play. These mini-games fall under four broad categories: drama, art, knowledge, and word game. There’s a pretty wide variety of mini-games in each category, and these mini-games will ask you to either draw a clue for others to guess, remember a sequence of blocks or musical notes, or even have you shake the Wii-mote in various ways to “act out” different situations. The game tries to channel some of the frenzy of the board game, but it largely doesn’t work for quite a few reasons, namely the poor controls, the unattractive graphics, and the repetitive gameplay.

Cranium: Kabookii screenshot

The first thing that is really striking about Cranium Kabookii is its control. Sometimes it works fine. For instance, in any mini-game that requires you to draw or to memorize a rhythm. However, in the various games where you have to use the Wii-mote to mimic the on-screen action, the control completely breaks down. Essentially anything you do with the Wii-mote will not translate into the gameplay, and the “act out” mini-games are almost sure-fire losses when they are selected as the next game. This is a real problem, considering ¼ of the games will be focused on your ability to mimic these motions. If there was a way to get into the game’s settings and completely skip or omit these mini-games (like in the Mario Party series), that would be one thing. But as it stands these horrific examples of Wii-mote controls are still very much a part of the game, and it’s a real shame because they drag it down so much.

Cranium: Kabookii screenshot

Another big issue you’ll notice with Cranium Kabookii is the graphics. Honestly, the game looks like it could have been an early GameCube game. The “characters” are these single color blobs that just stand there while you spin a wheel. Then when you pick a mini-game, there will be a very short and blocky animation that also looks pretty bad. Once you get into the mini-game mode, it’s not as bad, but you can still see this game’s graphical shortcomings. The play fields look 2-D and very simplistic, and animations are noticeably flat. Cranium Kabookii is not horrific to look at, but it definitely leaves you with the impression that they could have done a little better for themselves.

Cranium: Kabookii screenshot

Another facet of Cranium Kabookii that is readily apparent is its repetitive gameplay. For a little while, the mini-games seem really fun. But soon you’ll notice that the games under each of the four broad headings (drama, art, knowledge, and word games) are all very similar. And once these mini-games start running together, the entire game gets really boring really fast. Instead of varying the gameplay and keeping families engaged, the gameplay in Cranium Kabookii will probably leave families bored and uninterested, which is a far cry from the feel of the original board game. If anything, you would hope that the video game version would punch up the gameplay a little. But instead, the gameplay functions in the exact opposite way, and it’s a real disappointment.

The sound department, while not a total failure, also leaves something to be desired. There’s a commentator who basically narrates the successes and shortcomings of each team after every round. At first the commentator seems pretty okay, but as has been the case with other facets of this game, with repetition comes annoyance. After a few short rounds you’ll notice that the commentator has run out of ideas and will keep repeating the same things depending on the standings of the game. As far is music is concerned, there is definitely some here, but it’s barely noticeable, and as such, hardly worth commenting on.

I really had some hope for Cranium Kabookii. I would still heartily recommend the board game series to anyone with children who enjoy challenging and brain-stimulating games. And the idea of translating this super-fun family game to a family-friendly console such as the Wii sounded like an excellent idea that would yield entertaining results that the whole family could enjoy. But as a video game, Cranium Kabookii offers an experience that can’t even match that of its low-tech predecessor. The poor control and repetitive gameplay coupled with the underwhelming graphics and sound make for an experience that’s better left off of the video game console and back on to your family’s dining-room table.

Features:

  • Inspired by the original Cranium board game: Players will move through a track of puzzle categories featuring the same four characters as the board game: Creative Cat: Create works of art and imagination; Data Head: Discover fascinating new things; Word Worm: Crack codes and remix phrases; Star Performer: Perform hilarious feats
  • For the whole gang: Unlimited players! Up to 4 teams, each with 2 or more players, can compete against each other. Appeals to every type of intelligence, so bring family and friends of all ages together for an engaging and hilariously entertaining game. With so many activities to choose from, aspiring artists, trivia masters, actors, and wordsmiths of all ages have plenty of opportunities to shine.

    RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 2.0 Graphics
    Poor. Characters and game modes all look way too simplistic. 2.5 Control
    Vary greatly depending on the mini-game. Controls in drawing and music-type games are excellent. Controls in “acting” games are terrible. 1.5 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
    Music and repetitive sound bytes get annoying fast. Here’s hoping your family drowns this one out. 3.0

    Play Value
    Families who enjoyed the board game will like this one. But the simplistic and at times frustrating controls really ruin this one’s chances of being a family gaming staple.

    2.6 Overall Rating – Average
    Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

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