30-in-1 Game Collection: Volume 2 Review
Game Details
Title: 30-in-1 Game Collection: Volume 2
Developer: Digital Bards
Publisher: Digital Bards
Website: http://digitalbards.com/games/30-in-1-game-collection-vol-2/
Genre: Arcade, Party, Platformer, Puzzle
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Audience: PEGI 7
Release Date: 30/05/19
Price: £13.49 – Rapid Reviews UK was very kindly provided with a review code for this title.
What the Developers say
Six exotic islands filled with games and trophies are waiting for adventurers of all skill levels! Explore the islands solo, invite a group of friends over for some local co-op and competitive gameplay, or round up the troops for some wholesome family gaming! Race across island maps in a quest to be crowned Island Ruler!
https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/30-in-1-Game-Collection-Volume-2-1563746.html
Unlock trophies to customize the look of your Welcome Screen! Topple the scores of your friends and players from around the world to gain online leaderboard fame, and in the process, unlock new islands filled with a variety of new games. Become the ultimate master of 30-in-1 Game Collection Volume 2!
Introduction
30-in-1 Game Collection Vol. 2 is a collection of 30 mini-games spanning six different themed islands consisting of 5 games each. A King rules all islands with the highest score, and it is your goal to overthrow the current ruler. You must beat and collect all the stars in each of the five games within that island.
Doing so will see you become the new ruler of that land and receiving of the crown. The games range from turtle volleyball, bug hunting, pong, robot wars and racing bummer cars. You earn stars by completing these games, which then unlocks new islands and sees your name placed upon online leaderboards. Can you become the new ruler?
Gameplay & Replayability
This collection of mini-games can be played with friends or family locally, and even by yourself. Each of the six islands is themed from a sand-covered Egyptian island to a candy floss funfair island and even a prehistoric island with a giant dinosaur skull. Within each themed land, there are a few games that are very lightly based on each theme, with each game having three stars to collect.
Like most party mini-games, the collections depends on its games and how fun they are to play solo or with friends. So the question is, is this collection any good? And the answer is kind of. Some of the 30 games are enjoyable for the first few goes but then you realise there is minimal incentive to replay them unless you’re really into score chasing or playing locally.
That being said, the online leaderboards are nice inclusion, though. Out of the 30 games, there are 12 games that I enjoyed playing solo. But I then came to the realizations that 18 games are pretty awful to play with some of them feeling like their mechanics were borderline broken. It is a shame as there are few party game collections on the switch that suffer the same fate as Vol. 2. You have a few decent games, and then you have ones that should have never made it past the drawing board phase. Here are few of my favourites games from the collection:
Witch’s Brew – This was an exciting mini-game that sees you controlling a witch’s cauldron that you need to move back and forth to collect falling toads with the right analogue stick while moving the left analogue stick to control a bat. Bouncing toads off the bats head stops them falling to the ground and losing a life. Each successful bounce will see the toads increasing in size and with each bounce off the bats head you’ll need to use the cauldron to catch the toads: the bigger they are, the more points you will receive. It requires you to catch and use the bat to double your points which can become quite tricky when more start to fall.
Bug hunter – This one sees you controlling a toad that must eat bugs in the right colour order so that other bugs can be reached and eaten. As you continue to eat the bugs, they will slowly descend towards you. You have to move fast to eat 3 of the same colour bugs to score, revealing new bugs for you to eat before they reach you. Think match 3, and you are almost there.
Bumper Racers – This is the only racing game in the collection that has you driving bumper cars around a track against AI players or friends and family. You effectively have to complete five laps with added power-ups!
These are just a few of my favourites, and while they are fun alone and with friends locally, they soon show that there is very little staying power to each game.
I played with my family for 2 hours, and while some were more entertaining than others, the lack of any real party modes made the collection fall flat. I would have loved it if the 30-in-1 Game Collection: Volume 2 had a board game aspect like the Mario Party franchise. I feel this would have added some competition to games, giving the collection a little more meat.
Some games in the collection don’t control all that well or aren’t explained adequately. When you begin a new game for the first time, you will get a brief text introduction and the control scheme showing how to play. The problem here is that you want to play the game, not sit for over 3 minutes reading the instructions. Some of the controls felt imprecise or fiddly to use.
Worst of all, however, is that all games can be unlocked within a 2-hour window and my family were split on how they felt about the experience once we had played all the games: some felt that the games weren’t all that fun, to begin with.
My family agreed there were some decent, but they all felt that a board game format might have helped and made the experience a more enjoyable one.
So I asked a few friends to see if they wanted to have a go of this collection, and their experiences faired a bit better. They liked more games than my family enjoyed; however, their opinion on the title was pretty blunt. They said that this would be a game you would play of a weekend for few hours with couple mates, but it wasn’t their go-to party title on the Switch and was aimed more for kids to enjoy rather than adults. They also felt as though the collection should only be played in short bursts as they found most of the games had no longevity.
My multiplayer experience was mixed. I thought it was ok but focused more on a kids audience and there wasn’t enough extras or incentive to keep playing this one. There are the online leaderboards which I mentioned early on, and it is a great inclusion: if you love score chasing that is. I didn’t feel the need to keep playing without others as there was nothing here to unlock apart from 43 achievements that unlocked items that are then displayed on the main menu.
I would summarise by saying that this is purely a multiplayer experience and though you can play the game as a solo gamer, there is no sense of progression as everything can be seen in under 2 hours. Unless you want to collect all the stars in each island, try to beat the ruler to unlock the crown in the top right-hand corner for bragging rights, that will maybe extend your play time by a few more hours, but that is pushing it.
Audio & visual
The audio here is pretty standard if I am honest: nothing is outstanding here. Each island has its unique theme, so expect the sounds and music to reflect this.
Visually, it is colourful though, and the little animations aren’t bad either on both the main menu and in-game. The performance was fine but controlling some games felt like there was a delay of input which can become annoying, especially when certain games require precise or quick reflexes and the games fall flat at the first hurdle.
Conclusion
In summary, it feels as though this collection is a mixed bag. Some games are fun for a few minutes with friends and family locally. While the collection does have 30 games, they are not all winners, and some have really bad input lag that makes the games’ tedious and unenjoyable to play. I hope in Vol. 3 they can pull together some better games, ones that are not recycled from games we’ve seen countless times before and that have been done better in other collections.
Rapid Reviews UK Rating
You can purchase 30-in-1 Game Collection: Volume 2 from the Nintendo eShop at the following link, https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/30-in-1-Game-Collection-Volume-2-1563746.html
