Customer Reviews

Neighborhood Games

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

We've played a lot of other game collections with our family on the Wii and this one is our favorite so far. A very enjoyable experience all around, while not every game was my favorite there were quite a few that everyone enjoyed playing together. The spin on classic games like Dart-Ball (baseball meets lawndarts), Super Battle Shoes (battle ship meets horseshoes) as well as familiar fun games like Ladder Golf, RC planes, RC trucks, Football, and Water Wars (squirt guns) is a nice touch. The controls are familiar if you've played Wii Sports games. We really liked the fact that all of the games were unlocked in multiplayer so we didn't have to play through single player to get our money's worth.

The single player is a simple progression through 15 of the 24 games at 3 difficulty levels. You unlock clothing items for your character as you progress through the game. The presentation is simple but endearing and you can quickly get through the computer controlled players turn if you want in most games. You can also taunt the computer controlled player to try and get them to miss. The taunts, particularly the bottom shake made our younger child laugh.

Overall the we had a great time playing these games together. If you play different games in a an evening with your friends it keeps track of how many wins and loses each player overall which is a nice touch.

We were very disappointed with this game. There are many options of games to choose from, but unfortunately almost all of them had the same basic underhand motion. Bocci, horseshoes, shuffleboard, basketball, etc... were all just the same repetitive movement. Also, it was difficult to refine your movements because there wasn't a meter bar or some way to measure how far off you are. We lost interest in this game very quickly and just went back to playing wii sports.

This was one of the games we bought to play as a family with our new Wii. It's ok at best. Really this is the sort of shovelware that plagues any game system. There are much, much better games that do this sort of thing. Wii Sports Resort wipes the floor with this thing.

Rent before you buy, if you really need to try it. The main issue is that the motion controls really make the game feel generic - every event sort of feels the same, and there's a lack of subtlety to the controls that makes it feel very canned, like you're not really influencing the action. Very disappointing.

i'm sick of getting jacked by good game ideas that are executed poorly. the controls to every game but basketball are the same in that you underhand swing your remote like everything is horse shoes. it gets old in about 3 minutes.

if you don't win, you don't unlock two-thirds of the games. i'm renting from now on. this is the third time it has happened since i bought my wii. nintendo needs quality control or something to approve these games before release or put a big stamp that says "BUDGET TITLE" so anyone over the age of 5 knows not to buy it. video games are made to be fun, not pull your hair out.

Bought for grandchildren 3 and 6. They have another game simular to this one that they play all the time (Playground). So I bought this one but it is much harder for them to play and they do not like this one.

This game is an okay game. It's a good game to rent or if you can buy it for 20 dollars or less.

The game has a lot of games. You have to unlock a lot of them, and when you finally unlock them they are basically spinoff of the games you have like Lawn Darts, will then unlock water darts. Or basketball will unlock other versions of basketball. Also, the controls are all the same no matter what the game. Which can make the games kind of seem similatr after awhile.

That being said it's still fun, but I just feel like more could have been put into it.

We bought this game when a merchant told us this was the sequal to playgorund games...it is not.

This game is fun, BUT nearly every game requires the same underhand motion. Horseshoes, shuffleboard, jarts, etc....
I liked the "idea" of having RC planes, but the planes are really difficult to control (OK impossible), and the graphics are sooooo small.

There are some cute features of this game; however, for the most part, this seems to be one of those games in the bargain bin.

My wife likes this game. The worst game is the rc planes game. impossible to control. There are soo many games it will keep us busy for weeks if not months. The lawn dart game could be more accurate, we couldn't hit any of the 2 rear targets for 30 min! but with so many games there is too much to do and like here. We like it and you will too.

I find some of the Neighborhood Games difficult to play and imprecise in how the remote reacts. They provide some entertainment, but a game like Carnivale Games is much tighter to control.

Menu:
Single player mode (15 games/5 unlocked), multiplayer (1-4p) & 24 games (including single player 15 games). Very, very limited on customization of your "kid" & all look uninspiring w/clothes/kids titled w/stereotypical types (goth, hippy, martial arts, grunge, surfer, etc.) All games have high scores & difficulty choice (easy, med & hard) & you can hit A to FFW anything including AI's turn.
controls:
all dart games, shuffleboard, basketball, bocce & horseshoes, all use the d-pad (or nunchuck stick) to aim & B/motion to throw. The controls are not broken, but sensitive, so soft lobbing is best, w/expectations of being very precise (even on easy mode) in speed & angle. It only notices wrist twisting if a lot. on basketball, I had to hit it purposely on the backboard the correct angle to finally get a basket.
presentation:
backgrounds - see screenshots on amazon or bigger ones at gamerpro almost Nintendo 64 graphics w/almost no textures so looks almost 2D though some just had textured water or concrete, though there would be a lot of stains on things. Some were depressing, like the abandoned empty lot w/junkyard in a poor neighborhood, complete w/car alarms going off, abandoned tires, stripped car, dog & leaking oil can resting at your "kid's" feet. if there are any cars that drive by (a lot of ambulances, why???), they would drive at most 10 mph. in dartball & slingshot, there is a glass shed to hit (why?) in dartball, there is also a constantly shadowy face w/bright blinking eyes in the open hole in the tree trunk that might seem a bit scary to a very young kid (no, you can't hit him), maybe it's Michael Jackson? (amazon has screenshot.)
camera/gameplay area - camera is always way too far & high so you feel detached from the gameplay & makes aiming harder. Many mini games do this, but wit these cartoony, bad graphics, it's really annoying.
sounds:
cute, catchy music in menu, slow beat, boring, lower volume during game so bad it actually makes time slow down. only a few main event sounds, like in bball, you can hear realistic sounds for hitting the hoop, but only silence when ball bounces & a few general nature or urban sounds but not enough to keep your interest.
Difficulty:
On single player, the AI is so rubber banded to how well you play, it's almost a mirror, except they eventually get better even if you don't, so it's always a close call or they win. Even on easy, on horseshoes I checked, I had to be at least 35% accurate to beat him. This is good for adults, but little kids may get frustrated.

Single Player:
The only point to play single is for an AI opponent, or for clothing.
A.I - you face off a "master" kid like yours, they have very limited & short looped reactions like yawning, sitting in boredom, constantly taunting like saying "nayyyy nayyyy", laughing at you, clapping when you miss & other VERY annoying sounds & motions. If it was real life, NO ONE would EVER want to play w/them & best reward would be if you could smack them when you win. There are no voices except a few "Yippee" if they win or you mess up. You can't silence them w/o silencing all sounds & silence is BETTER. Using only text, they call you a chump or other mean things about how superior they are & how much you suck. I've never see such bratty characters, whoever designed them hates children. You can you can FFW any text or the AI's turn so they move 2x as fast which is a GODSEND.
Games:
lawn darts, water darts, horseshoes, super battle horseshoes (the stakes are on ships), Horseshoes herding (use horseshoes to spook chickens into coop), shuffleboard, shuffleboard bumpers, shuffleboard rebound, bocce, Bocce bash (hit realistic looking animals as they run across. PETA should have had a field day), Bocce Beach bounce (use boccee balls to push big beach ball to other opponent goal, great idea), basketball 21 (hoops in driveway, bad controls), basketball around the world, basketball horse.

Multiplayer:
1-4 players (no AI here so w/o friend, you are ALL alone). there are 24 games, all unlocked immediately. has rules, tutorial, high scores (meshed w/single players), tournament & settings of length of game, track, time, etc., but no rewards.
Games:
RC trucks, Shuffleboard bumpers, Football (2 players on each team full games), Bocce Beach bounce, Slingshot (static, boring shooting targets).
RC Planes - Million dollar mansion w/huge driveway & huge pool in front filled w/boats, cam is way up in the sky. Controls - nunchuck stick - fwd/back is pitch, left/right is roll, d-pad - throttle up/down (speed) & tail rotor right/left, B to drop a firecracker & A to stabilize & setting is # of planes you get. Goal is to sink the toy boats by dropping firecrackers (takes a few seconds to go off) or even do a kamikaze. Since the camera is way too far, when plane needs to circle around back to the pool by the mansion it becomes the size of a speck, cam should have been much lower & a bit closer.
Water wars (3rd PS w/water, sky cam only), Tennis (alone wii sports practice, use nunchuck, game over if miss once), Golf (driving range, hit ball collector trucks before they can reach you, explodes w/yard # placebards. not a bad arcade idea), Ladder Golf.

Pros: variety/game play ideas, use of details, control/physics sensitivity, various setting/track choices
Cons: bad graphics, weird background & game goal choices, too far away camera/hard to see, limited & poor character looks/clothes, limited event sounds, boring, slow music, MOST IMPORTANTLY: mean, very bratty, short/limited kid noises/movements AND weird, too realistic background settings, stains, weird guy in tree AND idea of breaking/destroying property for points & hurting of realistic designed/moving animals.

reviews - metacritic has links to many reviews
video review: WiiViewr youtube /watch?v=YXFNm0lSZQk (child safe)