Arts, Entertainment, Living Tuned In Play the game of 'Modern Family'
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P-G TV writer Rob Owen blogs about television and the TV industry. |
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ABC's "Modern Family" (9 tonight, WTAE) is a TV hit show and now the program wants to have a place in your game closet.
Created by Pressman, the Modern Family Game is designed for players ages 10 and up and can be played by two or more players.
With any board game based on a pop culture property, there's always a question of whether it's a good game or just an attempt to trade on the popularity of mainstream success.
So which is it for this one? Find out after the jump. ...
From my perspective, the Modern Family Game is more of an attempt to trade on the TV show's popularity than it is a fantastic game that you'll want to break out whenever friends are over. This is unlike, say, the "Battlestar Galactica" board game, which offers a terrific game playing experience.The Modern Family Game has each player or team playing as a different family from the show. If there are more than three players -- for the show's three families -- you have to go to team play.
The goal is to fill up a circle, split in three, with little green chips that you get for correctly answering questions. You do travel around a board but not without much care or direction. The board game aspect is pretty aimless. The goal is simply to win those chips. Most of the time you land on spaces that require you to answer a trivia question about the show, such as:
Who gives Phil a chess set for this birthday? Mitchell, Alex or Jay.
So here's the first problem with this game: If you don't watch the show, it would be frustrating to play because you wouldn't know answers to the trivia questions. Even as someone who has seen every episode of "Modern Family" -- but doesn't retain trivia -- I got a lot of questions wrong.
There is one set of cards that requires players to have a conversation that can spark an interesting discussion. But these "Interview" cards get played too rarely. When we played with friends a few weeks ago, the question that came up -- "Is it OK to lie to your kids to protect them?" -- showed off the differences in the way two friends, who are a couple, would choose to parent.
If you could find a way to get to these cards more often, the Modern Family Game would be more worthwhile. As it is, it might be a decent board game to break out at Thanksgiving -- but only if you're celebrating with fellow "Modern Family" viewers.
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