Our House Party Hands-On

Majesco has all aspects of the house and home covered with its lineup of games. Our House Party is the only house renovation game on the Nintendo Wii. It's a collection of minigames, but there's more to just playing games with your friends. How well you do in your minigame will determine what your house is going to look like, so it's time to brush up on your skills or else you'll end up with a sad-looking home.

Who's Making This Game: Budcat Creations is the developer of Our House Party, and it was recently purchased by Activision. Majesco loves publishing the family-friendly fun games.

What The Game Looks Like: It's no surprise that Activision picked up Budcat Creations because Our House Party has high production values. The game looks good, with sharp, crisp visuals. The characters also have their own unique style with their elongated faces and tiny features. The environments, indoors and out, have just enough detail for them to be simple but not bland.

What There Is To Do: This is a four-player party game in which you choose a type of house from the beginning and play through the minigames to build up your home. You'll shop for tools at Home Depot in the beginning to help you with the home renovations, and you'll compete against friends or the computer to customize your Victorian, contemporary, or gingerbread house. You can also share your creation with friends using WiiConnect24. The goal is to create the best-looking and highest-valued home in your neighborhood.

How The Game Is Played: There are more than 175 minigames spread across different areas of the home. For example, if you want to start with the kitchen, you'll go through minigames that are relevant to what you're renovating. We had to first demolish the interior of our kitchen, and then we could play other games that involved tiling and painting. Demolishing involves swinging your remote over the cabinets that match your corresponding color, and overdoing it will ding you. The tiling minigame involves placing colored and patterned tiles on your wall, but as soon as you pick up a tile, the wall pattern disappears, so you'll have to remember where you want to place the tile. Your score is determined by how accurate and fast you are. How you perform will determine what your house will look like, so this can get competitive if you're playing with friends.

What They Say: It's the only home renovating game on the Wii.

What We Say: We have to admit that shopping at Home Depot and renovating your home in Our House Party can be a lot more interesting than doing it in real life. It's definitely a lot less work. The concept is interesting because this is a large compilation of minigames, but there's an overall purpose and goal. You'll want to replay some games if you want the perfect home, or you can just pay to have someone fix your problems for you. Home improvements will begin when the game is released in the fall.