There’s nothing like using nostalgia in the marketplace, whether you’re selling movies, books, toys, or now even video games. Especially with the latter, using brand names like Monopoly, Transformers, or G.I. Joes can help turn an otherwise lackluster product into a goldmine. Video games and movies have jumped on board this phenomenon and, instead of creating original IP, are instead using brands that invoke that cash dropping emotion called nostalgia. Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing bad whatsoever with a company trying to make money or even by using a familiar source. The problem is that 2/3’s of the time, this avenue is merely a way to cash out without having to try. And Jenga World Tour for the Wii is the worst culprit of this new movement.

The game utilizes the Wii’s motion control and Nunchuck to play the game, and offers many different environments, rule variants, and modes to make Jenga new and exciting again – for the whole family!! Time for the bad news: once your family sees just how frustrating and un-intuitive these controls are – that is, when they attempt to pull their first block and mistakenly bring down the whole tower – they will stay far away. Heck, they might even drag out the real Jenga set and spend the 15 minutes to build the tower.

 “A subtle metaphor for the game design”

But that really is the one thing that this game does well: that is, rebuilding the fallen tower for you. The motion controls are so wanky and frustrating, however, that the tower’s falling might as well be on a random timer. The motion controls do detect the push and pull motion to remove a block, but that is it. To remove a block, you place the cursor on the piece and either pull back, or use the IR’s cursor movement to slide it out. It’s hard to explain, I know, but take my word for it: the motion controls are not impressive. The worst part about it happens when you try to remove a block and the game’s “excellent” physics system gets involved.

Frequently a block will just be stuck and you’ll have to yank it out quickly, or sit there slowly inching it out. You can use the other button controls that include pinch, in which you can hold up a block as you pull one out, and poke, which helps correct the balance. But the motion controls are so imprecise that if you accidentally pull up or down, or whatever, the tower will self-destruct and the wobbly thing will collapse. The last thing it resembles is realism, and your nerves will collapse before the tower does.

Of course, when the tower falls, the graphics do provide a decent depiction, in slow motion, of the catastrophe. The environments are even pretty well rendered. The first level is a sleek, metro apartment that even comes equipped with sniffing dog on couch. Let’s just say that is the only “normal” level; your Jenga journey will take you to Mt. Everest, pre-historic badlands, lava pits, under water. While the levels do seem kitschy at first, they are in no way the worst part of the game.

The random events and game variables Jenga World Tour will throw at you can be both bizarre and frustrating. As I mentioned, the levels are extremely diverse, and of course, those eccentricities figure into the gameplay. For instance, in the dinosaur level, the stampeding giants will shake the tower. Sounds good on paper, right? Well, factor in wanky motion controls that are frizzing out and an anemic frame-rate that is losing too many frames per second, and you’ve got a game that is barely playable. If you’re at the end of a match and the tower is wobbling uncontrollably, count on a dinosaur stampede or a catapult from the Medieval level to knock it down before you can even touch it. So you might want to check and make sure the real Jenga is under your bed or in the closet before you go and drop $30 big ones on the virtual version. Playing this game, I honestly couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to play it over the physical one. Plus, it costs twice as much as the $15 board game. But before you do the math on this Wii game, make sure to subtract Family and Fun. I’m not sure, but I think the old fashioned, real Jenga even has those features.

Gameplay: 2.0
Motion is absolutely not intuitive or fun at all. The motion controls plus the janky physics make it virtually unplayable.

Graphics: 5.0
The graphics are one of the few working parts of this game. While it surveys some pretty bizarre locales, the color scheme has a muddy look to it that really looks odd.

Sound: 5.5
Some of the tunes are okay, but the narrators get old quickly.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 1.0
A motion control game of Jenga looks great on paper. However, the real game looks even better on your kitchen table.

Multiplayer: 3.0
Better with company, but I would be embarrassed to play this with my friends or family.

Overall: 3.5
“Broken” is the only fitting adjective here. Save yourself $15 and a headache and buy the real board game.