Ultimate Board Game Collection review

A couple of the twenty games included in Ultimate Board Game Collection are decent enough to at least remind you that the games they emulate are fun. The rest are miserable any way you look at them.

With games like Chess, Parcheesi, Backgammon, Concentration, Go, 3D Tic-Tac-Toe, Anagrams and Naval Battle (aka Battleship) on offer,the first question you probably have is, "How are the graphics?" Okay, maybeit's the second, right after "Why the hell do I need my PSP to play Tic-Tac-Toe?" but we're assuming that anyone reading this is actually interested in the game.

At any rate, you'll be glad to know that the rendering power of the PSP is used to its fullest - little androgynous game pieces tread tediously across the Parcheesi board in full three-dimensional glory. That is to say, the games are monotonous, full of extraneous animation, and topped off with ugly backgrounds.

Above: Quite possibly the dullest collection of videogame images ever gathered in one place.Screens are from the PS2 version of the game

How's the music, you ask? The game lets you choose between three styles: Rock, Pop and Classical. They all start to sound the same after a while, and they'll all eventually compel you to turn the sound off on your PSP.