I might buy this game if it gets good reviews. Has seemed intriguing ever since I heard it announced.

i thought this is a quick cash-in... seems better than i gave it credit for. maybe i'll get it when it gets a price drop...

Okay I think I'm gonna get this game today if I can get a lift from my roommate to the Futureshop.

 Be sure to post your impressions if you do. Curious to what you make of it.

Alright I feel like a guinee pig, don't know why. It will be good to play a game before I am frontloaded with too much information and impressions. I will give a review before the end of the day with a rating. We'll see how close I am to the average.

I actually picked Carnival Games up myself yesterday; the shop only received one copy, so sales expectations are apparently not high.

I loaded it up to play it for "a few minutes" before dinner and ended up spending a good hour on it. It's a pretty polished little collection of minigames -- nice features like voiceovers and a choice of 1-4 multiplayer with separate controllers or a single shared one. Graphics better than I expected in terms of style -- the "carnival" atmosphere is family-oriented, but there's a little hint of seediness here and there that I found entertaining.

A few games have controller issues -- or learning curves, at least; I've discovered that the "frisbee throw" motion has to be fairly level for the ring toss. But for the most part the games work well and there's a nice mixture of timing-based and motion-based events.

There's not much reason to "finish" the game -- you can earn all the prizes and unlock all the "SUPER" variations with dedication -- but it's a fun little title and I imagine I'll throw it in from time to time when I want some physical Wii fun. Nice alternative to Wii Sports, may sell better than anticipated.

HappySquirrel - I believe Nintendo Power is consistently overrating Nintendo-published games (at least, the high-profile ones) and underrating third-party games (thus about even on average overall), is there any way to show those kind of stats?

That would make sense. That means Carnival games is probably really a 10 and we don't know it. Damn Nintendo Power to hell.

It is only $40, so although not a budget game, it's not the typical $50 full price either...

I already have enough party games, so I'll wait for used or price cut... (I don't have a lot of parties, so don't need a lot of party games)

(If more reviews come in and it ranks over 75 on metacritic I might consider it sooner...)

I just bought the game. I can't see it getting over 75% on metacritic. It's not a terrible game but it won't score that high. This game will probably be fun with people over. Shooting Gallery and Shooting Star games are the most fun. Shooting Gallery is knocking down ducks moving on a rail. Shooting Star is shooting out a paper star.

The game is however not very polished though. Some of the throwing games like dunk tank aren't really precision aiming. It's more like precision timing. It forces you to make a gesture when the moving reticle falls over the target. I haven't played all the games yet or explored the prizes but I will have to say that the game is more like a 6.5. I must emphasize though that this is probably one of those games where you will apreciate when more than one person is playing and you have spectators. There are lot of games, over 30 I think, but some just don't work well. They just look bad and will have you laughing in disgust. Others will be amusing and get a laugh from the room.

This is not a fair review as I've only played 15 minutes of the game and have not played all the games. Perhaps the unlockable games are more fun. I don't regret buying the game but wish it was priced a little lower. This is still the kind of game I want around for my Wii/bondage parties. Just kidding. Seriously it's not a bad collection of party games. It just leaves room for improvement.