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Another batch of mini games for the Wii... sigh.

Step up boys and girls and watch how 40 dollars can almost disappear in a matter of a couple of short hours! That's right, you there in the front row, have you seen enough mini-game collections on the Wii? Are you sick of waiting months at a time for more than Nintendo to release a title with depth and replay value? Well, too bad as Carnival Games has hit the Wii and with a little luck on the side of Global Star, your wallet as well. Now you may ask what could be so bad about Carnival Games, well I gotta tell ya, nothing really if you rented or paid 20 for it. But at 10 dollars less than the price of say, Metroid, the upcoming Mario Galaxy, or even Mario Party on the Wii, you will feel hornswaggled almost as much as if the Carnival barkers made you toss money away trying to win your girl a life sized Mickey Mouse doll.

Visually you won't get much beyond a Wii Sports wannabe. Oddly enough you can't use your Miis, but the characters you can create look strikingly close to the design of them. You do have 25 games to play, each looks like their real life money sucking counterpart, filled with detail, colorful backdrops, and accurate physics. There are some side shows and other distractions, but much like a real carnival you'll spend most of the time at the games.

What makes Carnival Games sort of a mixed bag is that not all of the mini games feel authentic. Sure skee ball, shooting hoops, and throwing darts are done rather naturally, but some of the mini game structure is down right odd. One instance is the milk jug toss and dunk tank games. Yes you get to toss the remote as if you are tossing a ball (use that wrist strap) but the aiming comes in a random target moving about and you must time your pitch with the moving target. It works mind you, but it's far from authentic. The worst example is the test of strength game. Instead of using the Wii remote's motion sensor to swing your club and judge speed and strength, you wave the wand frantically to build strength, and then hit a button to swing the hammer, finally you have to hit the trigger to try and time the metal ping with the bell.

While the game can be played solo or with four friends with tons of unlockables to find and acquire, the game just feels old after even a short time with it. While 25 games may sound like a lot, the length of each is too short, and the ones that feel authentic are too few. At a 20 dollar bargain price I may be able to recommend this if only to add another game to your Wii library, but at 40 dollars I can't help feeling I've been cheated.