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Review: Carnival (Wii)
Score: 75
All the fun of the fair - quite literally - or at least all the games that you love to play but resent forking out money for, knowing that each is probably rigged against you. At least in Carnival: Funfair games, there's no money changing hands and the games themselves are somewhat fairer.
Before proceeding, I should warn you that Carnival isn't for the traditional gaming fan - it's too simplistic by far. It's aimed at children between 3 and 13.
Each of the 20 or so mini-games (most are available immediately, the rest are eventually unlocked after a slightly frustratingly long period of winning) is well depicted and the variations on how you use the WiiMote are good. Children will love most of the games and this is a good time-waster to get out on a rainy day to keep the family from getting bored.
There are a few turkeys in the game selection, but on the whole each is worth its place in the collection, with our favourites being the shooting/aiming games (e.g. 'Shooting gallery', shown above, plus 'Ballon darts')
There are well presented instructions for each game, as shown above, plus the always-fun chance to create your own playing characters and to dress them up in as silly a fashion as you like.
For every time I thought 'this is boring', I was able to look up and see enjoyment on my 8 year-old's face. And you can't say fairer than that. This is a budget Wii title, and it shows in the lack of real depth, but the immediacy of the short mini-games is exactly what's needed for children (who, in my experience, have the attention span of a bee....)
In short, highly recommended - IF you're under 12!!