New Carnival Games for Wii and DS: Review and Giveaway

Who doesn't love a carnival game? Every time we go to Reno, we stay at the Circus Circus Hotel, and every time we tell the kids, "We're not playing games at the Midway this time". And every time we change our minds and end up with tons of stuffed animals to add to the kids' collection. Fishing for prizes, popping balloons, knocking down cans, tossing quarters and hitting rubber chickens into rotating pots are just so much fun! When I was invited to review 2KPlay's New Carnival Games, I knew my kids were going to love it -- but I didn't realize I'd enjoy playing it too.

The Basics
New Carnival games has over 30 new carnival-themed games, 300 new prizes and new features for both the Wii and the DS versions.

Here's a description of the game:
New Carnival Games is a collection of dozens of touch screen-controlled midway challenges, in the family friendly style of the original. DS gamers of all walks can have a go at "Balloon Blowout," "Pie Eating Contest," "Pop-A-Score," "Speed Pitch," and other activities, all inspired by contests of luck and skill. Each game is controlled with intuitive taps and flicks of the stylus or fingertips. Success is rewarded with prizes, including accessories that players' in-game characters can wear, such as rabbit ears, a walrus mask, or dragonfly wings.

New Carnival Games for Wii features over 30 all-new games and attractions, including Pitch-A-Plate, Bottle Stand-Up, Fish Bowl Bounce, Gold Rush Alley Ball and the always frightful Haunted House. In addition, skilled gamers will earn tickets that can be redeemed for over 300 colorful in-game prizes, such as Moon Rocks, Eye-Bots, Decoder Rings and Wacky Wearables™ ranging from a Walrus Mask to Dragonfly Wings. In a franchise first, New Carnival Games is Wii MotionPlus compatible, so players will be tossing coins, bouncing balls, shooting targets and bumping cars with increased accuracy and more precision than ever before. The new multiplayer feature allows for cooperative play and head-to-head competition in every game - enabling kids, parents and grandparents to all play together in games like Lucky Toss, Gone Fishin’ and Speed Bingo.

New Carnival Games has a suggested retail price of $49.99 for the Wii MotionPlus bundle, $39.99 for Wii and $29.99 for DS. The games are rated E for Everyone by the ESRB.


The Bongga
I can't speak for the Wii version since we don't have a Wii, but my kids love the Nintendo DS version. I constantly hear peals of laughter whenever one of them gets a game high score and gets their photo taken looking oh-so-ridiculous. I swear, they take it as seriously as they would a real carnival game, the way they concentrate and the way they cheer when they do well on a game and win lots of tokens. They love redeeming the tokens for little clothes and masks that they can put on the character, just the way you can redeem tickets at a video arcade for little plastic prizes. I must say, I prefer the virtual prizes because they don't clutter up the house, and I'll never have to sneak around to throw them away when the kids aren't looking!

Even I like playing New Carnival Games because the games just my style: easy to learn, simple and short. There's no back story, so I can play a game without reading a gazillion lines of instruction. I can get a few minutes of lighthearted diversion, then move on. No fuss, no hassle, perfect! Plus, the carnival games are fun!


The Blah
I can't really say anything bad about this game: no violence or sexual themes, and the games are short so it's easy to get the kids to put the game down when their screen time has run out. Of course, it's not exactly what you call educational, but then neither is a real carnival game.


The Bottom Line
New Carnival Games for Nintendo DS is lighthearted fun for the whole family!



Win a New Carnival Games for Nintendo DS
One lucky Bonggamom Finds reader will win a New Carnival Games videogame in their choice of platform: Nintendo DS or Wii.


Required Entry
Leave a comment on this post and tell me which carnival or arcade game you like to play, or tell me the biggest prize you've ever won from playing a carnival or arcade game. This entry must be completed before extra entries qualify.

Extra Entries
For extra entries, you can do any or all of the following. Please leave a separate comment for each extra entry with a way to verify the entry (i.e. tweet link, blog post link, Facebook id, Twitter id, etc.).

1) Grab my blog button and post it up on your blog (1 entry).

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3) Write this on the Bonggamom Finds Facebook page (1 entry):

I entered the New Carnival Games giveaway! http://tinyurl.com/27wp6yg

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7) Follow @2KPlay on Twitter and tweet this, up to once per day (1 entry per day, leave a comment with the tweet link for each tweet):

Win @2KPlay's New Carnival Games (DS or Wii, your choice!) on @bonggafinds http://tinyurl.com/27wp6yg #giveaways


The Rules
This giveaway ends at 11:59PM PST on November 10, 2010; I will draw a winner at random on November 11 and post the winner's name after the winner confirms acceptance. US addresses only. For additional giveaway rules, click here. Good luck!

Disclosure: I did not receive a sample or monetary compensation for this post. I received a product sample, but was not paid to review the product or give my opinions. Product information is provided by the featured company/product and is clearly indicated as such. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.