Though the remix modes make things a little more interesting, the classic game modes are kind of hit-or-miss. Operation involves twisting the Wii-mote to rotate the object you're extracting through windows of the same shape. Pictureka! is played with an auto-rolling die that dictates the types of picture category you have to find objects from within a cluster of stylized drawings, with points awarded to faster completions.

In Jenga you highlight which block you want to pull out with the Wii-mote, manipulating and twisting the angle and force of your pulling action with surprisingly good motion controls (though the Jenga tower itself seems to be made of Jell-O). Connect 4x4 is basically Connect 4 with chips on both the front and back of the board, for up to four players. And then there's Bop It!, a physical simon-says-type toy with various motions and actions to perform, dictated by a voice giving you instructions. Whether or not you can actually call Bop It! a board game is highly debatable, and manipulating a digital representation of the thing isn't really fun. Its controls are also pretty suspect.

Aside from some of the game choices in Game Night 2 feeling a little off, the collection also seems to be mostly superfluous, and the games themselves not particularly rewarding. With a physical board game, there's some value in the sheer physicality of manipulating the game pieces along the board; the experience, both in terms of game mechanics and the resulting social interaction, is its own reward. Translated to a digital medium, things feel flat-people engage with interactive mediums differently than physical games, and when you're simply exchanging the real thing for polygonal representations of game pieces (with no added flourish, unlike, say, a Magic: The Gathering or D&D video game) the whole proceedings somehow lose some of their luster. The games in Game Night 2 are made and presented in a competent manner, but it seems like the kind of shorter-attention-span gameplay involved in simply competing for a high score on a screen doesn't have the same kind of intrinsic value as playing a real board game. Needless to say, you (or your kids') attention probably won't be held for very long.

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Some parents with kids who really like board games and video games may find some value in this one-the whole package is only $40-but I would wager the number of children that want to play with a virtual Bop It! is probably pretty low. For those few that are gung-ho about their virtual board games may appreciate the high-quality presentation here, but for everyone else, you're not missing really anything by simply dusting off your physical board games. For once, keeping the TV turned off wouldn't be such a bad idea.

By Steve Haske
CCC Freelance Writer