The Digest:  I’ve got the last of three arcade games that EA sent me over. I’d like to say I saved the best for last but I didn’t. Up tonight is the Connect 4×4 for review, and I have to say I just don’t like it at all honestly. Maybe it’s me personally, but I have to be objective, right?!

THE FACT SHEET
RELEASE DATE: June 23rd, 2010
PUBLISHER:EA
DEVELOPER:EA Bright Light
ESRB RATING: E (Everyone)
GENRE: Family, Card & Board

PRODUCT OVERVIEW:

We’ve doubled the grid and doubled the players for a bigger challenge and even more fun. Take turns dropping checkers into the grid to create a line of 4 checkers horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. But watch closely! A Connect 4 can occur on either side of the grid or by weaving in and out of both grids! With the full version of Connect 4×4, you’ll be able to play the original Hasbro game, the new Super Squares remix mode, and new custom modes. You’ll also have access to trophies, leaderboards, and achievements.

PRODUCT FEATURES:

• Players 1-4
• HDTV 720p
• In-game Dolby Digital
• Online Multiplayer 2-4
• Content Downloads
• Leaderboards
• Voice

Review:

Like the other two games I already looked at over the last couple days, Connect  4×4 has three modes of play, Original, Remix and Custom.

We’ll start out with the Original mode of course:

It’s four players even if it’s single player, three computer players will join you.

The idea is to connect four either horizontally, vertically or diagonally but in this version you can connect back to front as well. In the real Connect 4 there is one row, in Connect 4×4 there is two rows, one in the front and one in the back. The chips you place in the front have a hole in them so you can see through to the back row to see what’s going on back there.

It’s just a race to see who gets four chips matched and it’s rather boring really. The ‘real –word’ version is much more fun, and I mean Connect 4, not the new Connect 4×4 that’s been recently released.

Here’s video of game play:

Up next is Remix Mode, here they attempt to make the game more exciting, but it just gets more annoying really.

In the Remix mode there’s icons on the game board for things like points, hovering and bombs.  With bombs you can blow up any other piece on the board, hovering just makes your piece hover in space for a few seconds or so. Other than the added icons, there’s no difference in game play, still rather boring.

Here’s a game play video for you:

Conclusion:

Some games just shouldn’t be made digital, and this is one of them. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t care for this game at all. Sure it looks good, and it’s an interesting twist on the original, but some things just shouldn’t change. You don’t mess with perfection, as they say.

Sorry but there’ not much to really say about this game, it’s just mindless matching and hoping someone doesn’t take your space. The original Connect 4 was like a suped-up version of tic-tac-toe and that was part of its charm. Sorry, but all of the charm is gone now.

Single Player: 2/5 | Multi-Player: 2/5

Special thanks to EA for providing us with a copy of the game for review.