Name: Hasbro Family Game Night: Battleship
Genre: Board, Strategy
Platform: Xbox Live Arcade, PS2, Wii (Reviewed on Xbox Live Arcade)



Of all of the Hasbro Family Game Night titles, Battleship might be the closest thing to a video game already. As technology improved, Hasbro fought furiously to create more technologically sound Battleship editions, and released different versions which would automatically discern a hit from a miss. In other words, creating a video game out of Battleship isn’t a stretch by any means.

With the Family Game Night series, Hasbro has again brought the concept to a full video game, but opted to do it in an interesting way. While all of the board games brought over kept their tangible, classic feel, it was surprising exactly how retro they went with Battleship. They didn't bring over the one that would shout "HIT!" or "MISS!", they picked the old version. The old, old version, with spots for pegs and stickers for radars. There are slight graphical flourishes, such as splashes on misses and explosions on hits, but the game is, for all intents and purposes, classic Battleship as you remember it.



When compared to Scrabble, which has secondary game modes which will likely be left unplayed, Battleship’s are genuinely fun and inventive. There’s Salvo, which gives each player as many shots per turn as they have remaining ships, and Superweapons, which adds powerful items to the players’ arsenal. The fun of Battleship is guessing where an enemy placed their ships, and that isn’t at all lost in the other modes, making them almost, if not just as interesting as traditional Battleship. Online multiplayer is included, and local play, although a bit silly, also works as long as the players are willing to look away while their opponents place their ships. There’s a singleplayer component as well, but no way to set the opponent’s difficulty (if that would even be possible). This is nitpicking, though, and there’s really nothing wrong with the game.

The problem is for as fun as Battleship might be, its longevity is very limited. After a game or two, odds are you’ve played enough for one day, and very few will find themselves coming back for more. For $10, though, it might be worth picking up for a rainy day. Either way, it’s feature complete, and is about as adequate of a Battleship port as possible. For anyone looking for a way to bring Battleship online there’s really no where better to look, and the game’s only real faults stem from the board game’s faults, of which there are few. All that’s left now is forced microphone support and the need to say “hit,” “miss,” and “you sunk my battleship,” for it to be a literal adaptation of the tabletop version.

 

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