Sorry Sliders is the last of the Hasbro Family Game Night collection to grace the Xbox Live Arcade, joining the likes of Connect 4, Battleships and Boggle, but has EA saved the best till last or is it a sorry attempt at a cash-in?
The concept behind Sorry Sliders is, like the remainder of the games in the Hasbro Family Game Night collection, very straightforward. Each round, players slide their four coloured pawns, in turn, onto a target containing different numbers. The numbers the pawns land on are the amount of spaces players can move their pawn upwards on the Sorry board at the end of the round. The game continues until a player has all their pawns at the top of the board, known as home.
Once again, EA have included three other game modes: Advanced, Battle Boxes and Custom, all of which increase the game’s fairly-limited play time. Advanced Sorry Sliders sees the addition of a revolving target containing a hole in the centre, rather than the number five. Landing on the hole automatically sends a pawn to the home, giving players an advantage over their opponents. The second game mode, Battle Boxes, adds boxes – containing power-ups – to the target. Quite surprisingly, there’s a fairly wide range of power-ups, differentiating from ‘ghost’ pawns (which can’t be hit) to ‘aftershock’ pawns (which give out a big quake when it stops moving).
The final game mode, Custom, allows players to customise the games rules. This game mode was one of the problems with Sorry which didn’t allow full customisation and whilst Sorry Sliders doesn’t allow full customisation, it does allow it to a great extent. Whether you want the target to rotate or the battle boxes on or off, it’s all there. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to turn off certain power-ups, as some can prove to be a bit irritating.
Something EA have managed to do excellently is to keep a constant design and style throughout all the Hasbro Family Game Night collection, including Mr. Potato Head, who, having proved to be an annoyance in Sorry, isn’t so visible and his appearance is now more charming than irritating. However, another constant comes in the form of the game’s audio, which once again proved to be an annoyance and is the game’s major flaw. There are only so many times one person can hear the same looping soundtrack, before pressing mute on the speakers. Alas, the rest of the game’s audio is to a pretty average standard.
The final constant feature of the Hasbro Family Game Night collection is the graphics and Sorry Sliders, like Sorry did, rates just above average as it is fairly good looking. Regrettably, it fails to bring out the best of your swanky high definition television, due to some very weak background details.
To conclude, Sorry Sliders is one of the stronger titles in the Hasbro Family Game Night collection, though, unfortunately, it still isn’t the best of Xbox Live Arcade titles. It’s fun for a few games, then you are unlikely to play it again, which seems a waste at the 800 Microsoft Point price tag.
