Introduction

I recently saw a video about someone who went through their Steam backlog and gave 1 hour to every game they had but never played. This made me realise an easy way to test which games I would like to play so I decided to try it myself. I came up with a few rules to ensure that it was as useful as possible for me:

• No games that I have more than 30 minutes of playtime (in recent memory).
• No games which I have a good reason for not playing yet (e.g. spoilers, Japanese language).
• No series I'm already very familiar with (e.g. Mario, Sonic).
• Spin-offs and entries which play differently are allowed however
• No non-games (e.g. 100 Classic Books, Cooking Guide).
• No games I've completed (no matter how long ago)
• No games I've already played on other platforms (unless the game in question is different on another platform)
• Games focused around seasonal holidays (e.g. Christmas, Halloween) can be skipped until around that time.
• The timer starts as soon as I have control (basically to prevent cutscenes, loading, and matchmaking eating up the time)

The Game

Game title: Clubhouse Games (NA), 42 All-Time Classics (EU), Dare demo Asobi Taizen (JP)
Franchise: Clubhouse Games
Developer: Agenda
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo DS
Original release date: November 3rd 2005

With that all out of the way, I decided to start with my DS games, with the first DS game I chose being Clubhouse Games. I chose this one first as the PAL region title (42 All-Time Classics) made it the first one on my shelf.

What is the Game?

Clubhouse Games is a compilation of various different card games, board games, and tabletop games. Most people will probably be more familiar with the successor on the Nintendo Switch (Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics) There are three modes in this game: Free Play mode, Stamp Mode, and Mission Mode. Free Play mode allows for the player to choose any game out of the collection which they have unlocked. Mission mode has the player complete specific missions to unlock rewards. The mode I chose to play however was stamp mode. This mode has the player play through a series of games, with the player moving on to the next one if they earn three stamps. The games will have a condition which determines how many stamps the player will earn (e.g. winning earns 3 stamps, while losing only earns 1). Stamps are carried over to the next game if the current game gets filled. The player will unlock each game which they play in stamp mode.

What Are My Thoughts?

As they weren't created specifically for this game, I cannot review the games inside of them and will instead focus on how they are in this collection, along with other aspects. This game has a lot of games to choose from so it was easy for me to find a few that I liked, even including ones that I hadn't played before. I feel like the inclusion of the the stamp mode me appreciate the selection more as I didn't just end up jumping straight to Solitaire (which I actually didn't end up playing) and instead got to play a bunch which I would have probably not otherwise considered. The CPU in this game were great and it felt like they could honestly be real people (most of the time) though there were still some times where they did feel a bit stupid or too good. Basically my main gripe with the game is the lack of a skip button after losing one round of a game in Stamp Mode. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad it forces you to play at least one round but having the option to skip any which I don't enjoy would've made it better. This especially became prevalent when Turncoat (Othello) took up around 1/4 of my time and I just wasn't enjoying it. Other than that I would have to say that this is a pretty solid collection of games, which I could easily see myself going back to if I get bored at some point.

My Score: 8/10
Will I play it again?: If I get bored

Next game: Advance Wars: Days of Ruin