You know what I'm talking about, when you used to play Battleship with your brother, and he got a direct hit on your last boat. You would call out miss and then slowly, sneakily move your boat to another portion of the map that could accommodate your three-peg boat. But then somehow he would find out and either run to mom crying that you were cheating or, if he was your big brother give you a pink belly you would soon not forget. The same could be said with Sorry or Trouble, whether it was the sneaky move one extra/less space on the Trouble/Sorry board or the trick roll with the dice (only in Sorry) to move where you want when your opposition wasn't looking. Connect Four was a little trickier, cheating that is, the only way I could ever pull one over on someone was to drop two colors down the same chute in a way that was both smoothly executed and while their attention was elsewhere. Mom or Dad coming in the room or a telephone ringing was always an ideal time. But now, the time for cheating simply has passed me by. Because now I'm playing in the uncheatable realm of the video-game medium.

Yes, I got this game based on my wife's love of puzzle and board games, but in all fairness, these are as enjoyable to me as they are to her. She just claims them as her own as soon as they show up. Now I'm going to say this to start off, I did not appreciate the way the multiplayer was set up in this game. The reason for this is that DSI games normally provide single-card downloadable play, but this time it doesn't, and I am not happy about it. Why? Because in my opinion, the best game out of the four, is Battleship, the DS is tailor made for this board game (think about how the original set up and tell me it doesn't resemble a DS) plus the game doesn't allow you to cheat the way the board game did. I would have loved to played this against my wife who has the nasty habit of kicking the pudding out of any and all comers when it comes to these types of games, but sadly it was not to be.

But that doesn't mean there wasn't some fun to be had. All four games did provide a varying degree of enjoyment but it seemed to me that Battleship and Connect Four were easily head and shoulders above the other two, and that is because they are essentially two-player games. It is not as much fun playing a four-player game with the computer, three computer players are better then nothing but it also almost doesn't feel right, enjoyable for small slivers of time. More often then not, it almost seemed as if I was playing against the three computer players who were working together, no, not because the A.I. in this game was so clever that it was trying to out-strategize me rather the programming simply defaulted to booger me up if there was ever an option to hurt me rather then another computer player.

 
 "Goforit! Connect Four!"

The graphics of the game were merely adequate, nothing special to look at; the pop-o-matic button on Trouble was focused on while the dice rolls, then the camera would pull back to reveal the entire board allowing you to select which game piece. The same could be said with Sorry and Connect Four - all very blah, very boring-looking graphics, the only bright spot in the game's visuals was the flaming and smoking ships in Battleship. Plus the missile launches were kind of fun to watch, especially when there was a hit.

The audio was, again, a disappointment; slight quips in Battleship get old after firing your 30th missile and the light sound effects found throughout the game are paper thin and really bring nothing to the gaming experience. I would have preferred more audio in Battleship other then the canned phrases for firing and when a ship is sunk, and it would be kind of funny to hear computer opponents expressing child-like emotion when playing well in the other games.

Gameplay: 5.6
There is very little in terms of stylus usage, some pressing and aiming but for the most part, the game could have been made more exciting if more stylus activity were implemented.

Graphics: 5.0
They are simplistic and blasé with only a rare interesting visual.

Sound: 5.0
Again, what little voice work becomes repetitive, otherwise the sound effects are best just turned off.

Difficulty: Easy/Medium
I have yet to lose a game of battleship to the computer, the computer players in the four player games tend to all gang up on you.

Concept: 5.5
One of the four games was a good idea (Battleship), one was alright (Connect Four) and two simply did not need to be there.

Multiplayer: Unavailable
Again, another game that requires multiple cards for multiplayer action. Strange since there isn't much to this title, I would think placing that function in the game would really open up the possibilities for some really engaging play, but nope.

Overall: 5.1
It should have been a title with just Connect Four and Battleship and the single-card multiplayer function turned on.