6th March 2017, 8:05 PM
1 2 Switch turns out to be a great party game. I've got plenty of family members, and a few friends, who really don't play video games that much. This is made for them, more so than even Wii Sports was. The design decision to have people look at each other instead of the screen is brilliant, since it keeps the party about the party goers and not the screen. Recently I've taken a keen interest in what makes a good "family and friends" game vs a good "gamer friends" game, ever since my sister pulled out some old cheap toy that's nothing but an LCD screen popping up random words and rules that tell you how to "hint" at the word without spelling it out. Fun was had by all, and the game more or less just provided ground rules and nothing else. I think that's the best way to design a party game. Non-gamers don't want to buckle down and read new rules every few minutes or pay attention to what a ghost or a turtle has to say on a TV screen. They want to talk to each other and get reactions from each other. The Jackbox Party Packs have been an amazing success in that regard, and it isn't even You Don't Know Jack that's winning it. It's the more "madlib" style games where the host more or less stands back. I get the impression this one will be perfect for that kind of play, and I can't wait to play a few rounds with some of my family members.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)