Clubhouse Games review

No one was seen giddily ripping open the box and reveling in the glory of Clubhouse Games when it arrived… not that we'd do that normally. But compilations like Clubhouse can too easily be dismissed outright as budget games, and that's because card and board games have never really translated all that well to game systems. But the latest in the "Touch Generation" series isn't just a collection of lame card games that you never wanted to play anyway - there are 42 games to explore, and they all work in their own ways.

The games are split into eight categories - basic card games, intermediate card games, advanced card games, basic board games, advanced board games, variety games, action games, and single-player games. That's a lot of games, so without listing them all, here's a smattering of what you can expect: Old Maid, Blackjack, Texas Hold'Em, Rummy, Checkers, Backgammon, Chess, Darts, Bowling, and Solitaire. Each game has several options to modify for your customizing enjoyment.

The stylus works intuitively for most of the games, and clear instructions make it easy to introduce yourself to games you've never played before. The action games lose a little in translation to the touch control, but are still fun in small doses. Darts, for example, is played by "picking up" the dart with the stylus and flicking it toward the board on the top screen. Once you get used to it, it isn't difficult, but flicking darts around is only fun for so long, and doesn't have a lot to do with actually playing darts.