Carnival Games

 

    Chances are, you've heard the term “shovelware” before. It's a catch-all term to describe low-budget games that are quickly made and, for lack of a better word, shoveled out to store shelves just as fast to make a quick buck. They're usually released at a budget price and made to appeal to people that aren't particularly into gaming, taking the form of licensed games, mini-game collections, cash-ins on trends, and so on. Understandably, with the Wii's guaranteed audience being those outside the normal gaming crowd, it got hit with a flood of these types of games, and a lot of people wrote off the console entirely because of it. However, while a fair few of these games were pretty worthless, some were pretty unfairly written off even though they were by no means all that good, like Carnival Games.
    The game is exactly what it says it is, a collection of a bit over twenty games that are based on the kind of thing you'd see at a sketchy traveling carnival. It's split up into five zones, each with their own selection of mini-games to play, and they're about what you'd expect based on the premise. Everything from skee-ball, a dunk tank, strength testing, throwing darts at balloons, knocking down milk bottles; a lot of the most popular types of games make an appearance. The majority of them can be played in either single player or multiplayer, with the single player mode awarding you tickets and prizes for completing each game, which can be used to eventually unlock special variants of games and clothing pieces for your avatar.
    The thing with all these games is that, for at lot of them, the controls can kinda suck. They're responsive enough, but each game has its own bizarre quirk with how exactly it controls. Some of the throwing mini-games are timing-based, but whether or not the aiming reticle will move in a simple motion or swing around randomly is completely up in the air with each game. Sometimes you're able to lock onto a target, but sometimes you're not, turning the balloon popping and football passing games into a lot of hand flailing. Also, physics are not always as they seem, as tossing a coin or a ring can turn into one big guessing game on where they'll slide or bounce to. Most of these result in the process of winning a game coming down to sheer luck, hoping that the planets suddenly align and everything works out in your favor.
    However, I think to some extent, that's kind of the point? If you have ever been to a carnival before, you'd know many of those games are rigged so they're almost never in your favor, leading you to get into that “just one more try” mentality, hoping luck is on your side. In that sense, Carnival Games emulates that pretty much perfectly. A lot of the games, simplistic and unfair as they are, are addicting to replay because you wanna beat the odds. There's no doubt at least some of it is intentional, as for example, the game where you shoot out a paper star with a BB gun has simulated recoil on it to make it way harder. It doesn't excuse every control decision, strength testing requiring swirling your wrist around before swinging the hammer might be a guaranteed way to get carpal tunnel syndrome, but it puts a lot of the game into context.
    Helping the game is that, even though it's a low-budget title, it's got a strange bespoke charm to it that really helps sell the traveling carnival feel. The characters all have this somewhat uncanny quality, looking as though they were pulled right from a vintage circus poster, and the games themselves are made to look as though they've become quite run-down and worn. The announcer has an appropriately old-timey flair to the way he introduces the games, and while you're playing the games, other carnies will heckle you and egg you on to try and do better. It's not amazing by any means, as the music is pretty generic and some sound effects feel like they're missing, but again, it works for what the game sets out to do.
    Carnival Games isn't that great, most wouldn't even dare call it good, but I find its ingenuity with its presentation and the way it works with its limitations to be at least a bit admirable. It managed to invoke a lot of nostalgia in me, both for my own visits to actual carnivals, and for these kinds of fun if mediocre games in general. This is the kind of game that thrived on rentals, bringing it home for the weekend and having a decent time before returning it and not giving it much thought afterwards. In that sense, it truly mimics a day trip to a carnival, and I can't fault it for that. Now as for how it sold over a million copies, I don't think even a rigorous scientific study would explain how that happened.