home > review > Hoyle Gaming in Your Hand Lacks Key Ingredient: Fun
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ups: good selection ; basically functional
downs: controls slow ; uncomfortable to hold ; low resolution

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Hoyle Gaming in Your Hand Lacks Key Ingredient: Fun
review
game: Hoyle Family TV Gaming System
two star
posted by: Tristan Mayshark
publisher: TechnoSource
developer: TechnoSource
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date posted: 09:45 AM Tue Feb 21st, 2006
last revision: 09:45 AM Tue Feb 21st, 2006


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Click to read.Anyone who sees this review of the TechnoSource Sonic Blast device will understand why I was less than thrilled to test out their attempt to package Hoyle on to a controller. This attempt doesn\'t fall as completely on its face as Sonic Blast, but only because it\'s not vomiting all over 15 years of gaming history in the same way. It\'s called the Hoyle Family TV Gaming system, but as there is no way to play it with more than one person, I am unsure why it is named such - perhaps they think you should tie up the family tv with this device, so they can do more useful or entertaining things like reading books.

What you get with this controller is 11 basic parlor games: Mahjong, Chinese Checkers, Reversi, High Card, Backgammon, Dominoes, Old Maid, Go Fish, Crazy Eights and Solitaire. All of these games have the basic problem of being displayed in a low-color, low-resolution mode. The first 10 titles suffer from relatively weak (although annoyingly cheap) AI, while the last one only suffers from a slow-moving cursor that makes a game of solitaire take approximatly 18 times as long as playing on a PC (based on some rough math I did).

The other fundamental problem with the Hoyle Family TV Gaming system is that it\'s uncomfortable to hold, and the buttons feel cheap and likely to break. It\'s shape is remenescient of mahjong pieces, but the ergonomics of this do not work out.

There is little reason to purchase the Hoyle Family TV Gaming System. Any internet ready PC will have access to numerous freeware versions of all of these games which will be superior because they will in many cases support multiplayer, better graphics, and stronger AI. You\'ve been warned.

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