Reviewed: October 12, 2002
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
Sierra Entertainment
Developer
Sierra Entertainment
Released: September 20, 2001
Genre: Board Games
Players: 4
ESRB: Everyone
8
7
7
10
8.5
System Requirements
Hoyle as been the undisputed authority for parlor type games for over two centuries, and Sierra has been bringing these classic games to your PC for over ten years now. I’ve been an avid fan of all of the Hoyle releases since Sierra started putting them out back in the early 90’s. I was even a beta-tester for their TSN (The Sierra Network) online gaming system that allowed you to play many of these games online. Keep in mind these were pre-Internet times when you actually had to dial another person’s computer or a service such as AOL or CompuServe to do anything online.
Sierra has managed to keep up with the times and subsequently release a new and improved version of their various Hoyle franchises every year which brings us to this year’s release of Hoyle Board Games 2003.
This latest release is packed with all of your favorite board games including:
- Backgammon
- Battling Ships
- Bump ‘Em
- Checkers
- Chess
- Chinese Checkers
- Dominoes
- DoubleCross
- Gravity Tiles
- Mahjong Tiles
- Mancala
- Master Match
- Pachisi
- Reversi
- Rummy Squares
- Wordox
- Word Yacht
- Yacht
With all of these games combined with online support and 10 interactive and entertaining 3D opponents, you are going to have some serious and addicting fun when you start playing everything that Hoyle Board Games has to offer.
Standard for all of the 2003 Hoyle releases, this game comes with the exclusive Facemaker tool that lets you create your own persona from hundreds of various facial features, clothes, and accessories. Much like a police composite system, you can overlay noses, lips, hair, eyes, until you create something that either resembles your own appearance or even some crazy character with a rainbow clown wig. The possibilities are nearly infinite. One nice feature for those of you who own more than one of the Hoyle 2003 games is that you can load your composite image into those other games and not have to create it entirely from scratch.
Navigating the menus is quick and easy. The various games are sorted into three main categories, so you can quickly find the game you want to play and load it up. Once loaded there are handy tutorials and excellent instructions to familiarize you with the gameplay and rules for each game. You can let the computer pick your opponents or choose your own and even choose to have your favorites return for future games.
There are a lot of standard board games available in this package including some simple favorites like checkers and chess. I’ll admit I was skeptical about the chess game after having just played nearly 12 hours of Chessmaster 9000, but this game provided an excellent tactical challenge. While the graphics and multitude of options can’t compare to a dedicated chess game, there are 2D and 3D boards along with some trash-talking opponents.
Other games like Yahtzee and Battleship are also available although they have been subtly renamed – probably to avoid legal issues with Parker Brothers. Battling Ships is easily one of my favorite games in this package. It plays much like the version we all grew up with only this one has cool artillery fire animations, smoke and fire when your ship takes a hit, and plenty of hilarious commentary from your opponent.
Some games are just more fun to play on the computer simply because of the lack of setup time. Dominoes is a good example, as you can press a button to turn over all the dominoes and shuffle the pack much quicker than real-life. The same goes for games like Yacht where you can record your scores electronically without maintaining pads of paper and sharpened pencils.
Each game is totally unique in both visual style and its interface. There are lots of nice little animations like the incoming fire on Battling Ships or the little cars (that look like cordless mice) zooming around the track on Bump ’Em.
You can customize a lot of various options including background art to make each gaming experience different from the last. The computer opponents are all quite clever and include a large library of taunts and one-liners that are specific to the game being played along with amusing idle animations. Marvin the dinosaur is one of my favorites when he slurps down his soda and tosses the empty cup into his mouth and swallows it. The green alien holding up the sign saying, “We have Elvis” is always good for a laugh no matter how many times I see it.
Hoyle Board Games has some excellent sounds and music. There are great mood and environmental tunes that play in the background while you are playing many of the games. Given the length of games like chess, checkers, and Mahjong it was surprising that the music never got repetitive or annoying.
Just like the visuals, there are a lot of subtle niceties that don’t stand out individually, but totally enhance the overall experience. These range from the sounds of flipping pieces in Reversi to the skidding of your car as it hits an oil slick in Bump ‘Em to the incoming fire of rockets in Battling Ships.
The dialog for all of the crazy characters is excellent and not only fits the theme for the characters in both content and unique accent, it also relates to the game being played. Obviously, a lot of dialog has been recorded for this game.
Hoyle Board Games offers a diverse selection of individual games. Almost no two games are alike which means there is something for everyone including games for kids that are even educational. The Word Yacht game helps build vocabulary and even comes with an impressive dictionary to not only check spelling, but also define the words.
In addition to the 100+ page manual, the game also comes with an abridged version of the Third Revised Edition of Hoyle’s 8 Favorite Games; a substantial and useful guide that you can use even in your non-computer gaming. This book is non-specific to the software, so regardless of which Hoyle game(s) you buy, the book will be the same.
Hoyle Board Games is portable and can be installed on your laptop and played without the CD; although, certain features, animations, and sounds that stream from the CD will not be available. As an added bonus, there are even some PDA versions of Backgammon and Mahjong Tiles that you can download to your Palm OS and Windows CE Handhelds. Now you can master these games even when you are away from your computer.
Hoyle Board Games brings together a great mix of visually stunning and challenging board games, including four new games to the series that are sure to be a hit. Lively, interactive play and crisp, colorful graphics will make this a favorite for your entire family and a permanent addition to your PC gaming library.