Digital adaptions of board or card games have always been a little iffy to me, they either offer the barebones experience or they are bloated with modes that don’t really fit, so I tend to avoid them. Nintendo, all the way back on the DS, so 15 years ago, released Clubhouse Games, which offered a host of title, without the bloat and now many years later, they are back again on Switch, but does the extra games make it a good collection, or is it to bloated for its own good?

The game, or the collection of games can best be broken down into types, you have your card games like Klondike, Texas Hold ’em and Match, the board games like Mancala, Chess and Ludo, table top games like Match 4, Mahjong, Toy Baseball and finally the rest, bowling, darts, billiards. Because there are so many groups of games, finding something to play is never an issue, and if you can’t choose the game has a random selection option for you. Actually, getting to the games is done in one of two ways, you can navigate to the full list, which is thankfully unlocked from the start, or you can use the globe.

The globe is the way I liked discovering the games, but not the way I liked to play then, what it does, is provide you with a pre-set list of games, that meet a specific criteria. One example is ‘The Four Great Games’ selecting this, gives you four classic titles, Chess, Backgammon, Dominos and Blackjack. Selecting the guide who is presenting them to you, will take you to the list menu, but placing those games at the front, giving you easy access to them. As you play more games, you will unlock new guides, who in turn, will provide new, menus, for lack of a better word, of games you can play.

Playing the games though, that is where things can get complicated, or simple, depending on which game it actually is, as some are as basic as you might expect. Almost all of the games will offer you levels of difficulty, if you are playing solo, but each game will have different options as well and messing around with them, can provide more challenges. Looking at game number 1, Mancala, the options are basic, the difficulty level and who goes first, you can set it to player 1, player 2 or random. Whereas game number 19, Hanafuda, has many more options, the same as above, but also card style and more and because each game is independent of each other, you need to ensure that you pay attention to the options. Because there are so many games to play, you will have to learn where they are in the list, as I was not able to locate anyway to favourite them for my own list. The other thing to consider is controls, there are multiple ways of playing almost all of the games, but sadly, they are all over the place in terms of consistency.

Bowling, Darts and Fishing, are all games that cannot be played with the Pro Controller, if you have a Switch docked and try, the game will tell you, they do support touch controls though, so that is an option, if you don’t want to swing your arms around. Other games support touch and controllers, making it a choice, but some games, like anything card based, that supports controllers are just annoying to play, as you are given a hand cursor to move around and it takes time. When you break into the local play, you have the option of touch or JoyCon only, and if you choose touch, most of the games will be greyed out, indicating that you can’t play them with that input. There is nothing wrong with it, but in order to swap to JoyCon, so you can play more games, you have to back all the way out and start over basically, which is a pain.

Now as for the games themselves, as I said, some are basic, with only a few things to worry about, Hounds and Hares falls into that group, but others, like Chess, are as complex as you might expect. Because the game difficulty, before you mess around with the CPU settings, are so varied, there will instinctively be ones that you enjoy over the rest and play them without fail, the only problem is, that once you master a game, nothing happens, there is no new version of the game, you just get a little trophy icon near the game icon. That is not to say that you can’t unlock anything, because there are some card variants to discover, which thankfully don’t take completing a few dozen random requirements to obtain, just play a few card games and you are good to go. Some of the games have a lot of replay value in them, especially solo, like Chess or Bowling, but some are more one and done games, you will just need to find out what appeals to you the most.

Ideally, you will play the game with other folks, but if you play on your own, whilst that is an option, there is a significant increase in the difficulty that the game offers, the normal and hard are easy enough, but then it jumps up to amazing and impossible and both are a real challenge. With the games that rely on randomness, like Blackjack or Yacht Dice, you can get away with some easy wins, if the randomness falls in your favour, but the flip side is that if it goes against you, you can easily be dominated. Regardless of your luck there, the game does reward you, even if you lose, by providing little bits of trivia for each of the game, which you can review at any time, these can be as simple as when Mancala was first recorded being played, to the origins of Nintendo themselves.

Outside of the games, there is a little fun with the globe, in that your toy figure caricature, is joined by other players, you can find them based on your favourite food, your heart’s desire and your friends list. If you play some games online, you can also find the most recent folks you have played against, if you want to challenge them to a rematch, being that the game was not out at the time of review, finding games online did take a lot of waiting, but thankfully, while you do wait, you can play any of the three games you have selected. The only aspect of multiplayer, that I was not able to test out, was the local play, where other users download the free app and as long as someone owns the game, you can all play on your own switch consoles against each other.

Now the games presentation is odd, it is not bad, just odd and that comes down to how minimal everything is, before you get into games, which can vary between detailed and bland. The more complex the game, the more complex the visuals tend to be, which is nice, especially with the tabletop or board games. When you load up slot cars, you will see extra track pieces behind the playing space, or the pieces from your game of chess, or checkers, stacking up on the side of the screen. The simpler games still have a fair amount of detail in them, but there is little more on offer and while not a bad thing, it does highlight one of the games biggest points of concern, just how inconsistent it is. The other issue that I have comes down to the tutorial videos, which are not really tutorial videos at all, but rather short clips that explain roughly half the game, before letting you lose in it, or heading into the how to play menu.

The videos are also weird in that they are narrated by characters that slide in from each side of the screen, not an issue there, but the voice work is all over the place in them. Some, they are serious and others, they try for playful and neither works that well, there is nothing wrong with the voice work, it just feels forced across the board. The music on the other hand is nice and comforting, that being the best way I can describe it, as there are plenty of lengthy games, and the music that plays during them, is relaxing. Not relaxing, as it will put you to sleep, but in that it does not force its way to the front of the game, taking your attention off the opponent.

51 Worldwide Games is a solid collection of games, that honestly offer an almost unlimited value for money, given how many can be replayed. On your own some of the games will feel a little pointless, especially as the difficulty can ramp up out of nowhere but playing against other people things are a lot more fun. Some control restrictions though pull you away from the fun and there not being anything major to unlock, is also a little bit of a disappointment.