Hasbro Games Junior Collection had me thinking there’d be a stack of mini-games attached, as per The Cat in the Hat: Rainy Day Mayhem and Sesame Street: Friends And Fun, but it’s a straight trilogy of family favourites, going from board games to the videogame screen.
First up is Monopoly Junior, which is probably the best of the bunch and is certainly the board game I’m most used to. Some elements are changed, so there’s less properties, less spaces, zero railways stations, and Jail becomes ‘Time Out’, but because there’s less squares on the board, once someone buys a property, you’re more likely to land on it. I guess this speeds the game up, though.
It was odd that the game ended when one of the other players went bankrupt, and then the winners were ranked in order at that stage, since normally, you’d play to the end until there was one player left with cash.
Second comes The Game of Life Junior. I have played this back in the dim and distant past, but it’s not as familiar in the UK. It’s fairly similar, though, as you roll the dice, move a few steps and collect stars as you pay $1 to enter attractions like a theme park – even if you don’t actually see said theme park, as you just get the star and then move on.
The first to ten stars is the winner, and it got VERY close between me and one of the AI players.
For the finale, there’s Cluedo Junior, but as it’s aimed at children, there’s not exactly much talk about a murder, since it’s about who was caught in which room, with which item, and so on.
Alas, for this one, it’s so completely random as to whether you win, since I got down to the final suspect, implement and location, but the last item was a 50/50 choice… and I got it wrong. The end. After 45 minutes. GAH! 🙁
For each game, there is one annoyance about rolling the dice, in that you throw it, and then everyone else can jump in and knock it over, so you might start with a six, then someone kicks it, making it change to a one! If you can get back to it in time, all good, but otherwise, you’re stuck with that. That’s a bit mean.
The whole trilogy is very colourful, and as you gain XP from playing them, you earn new outfits and accessories to use in future playthroughs.
However, like The Cat in the Hat: Rainy Day Mayhem, it’s has a very short gameplay time when running through them once each. Hence, it may be worth a purchase if you’ll play them many times over.
For this, I’d have expected a price around £15 tops, but it’s £25, so while it’s mostly fun, maybe wait for a sale.
NOTE: For my gameplay below, it’s in 1080p HD, rather than the usual 4K UHD, because I find the latest PS5 update has made my console ONLY output 1080p max, and makes 4K unselectable. I hope to get that sort out soon!
Hasbro Games Junior Collection is out now on PC/Steam, plus the respective online stores for Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5 and Xbox.
Important info:
- Developer: Casual Brothers Ltd
- Publisher: Outright Games Ltd
- Players: Single-player, split-screen co-op
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.