A Video Game Idea

So I was sitting around, playing the incredible Ultimate Card Games cart on my GBA, and I was "inspired" by its simplistic brilliance [don't believe me? check the reviews in that link] - it packs in tons of card games, which you could find as freeware anywhere on the web, and puts them all in one handy portable cart for you. The replay value is off the charts - it's card games, how do you get tired of them? That got me thinking...

A game for all the systems, but with the emphasis on the online enabled consoles (PS2 and Xbox). Manufactured by Hasbro, of all people. What's it called?

Family Game Night [Rated E, of course]

My idea is to pack lots and lots of card, board, and other traditional games all together in one tight package. Parents would buy it for their kids in droves, and it'd be a fun way to kill time online. Replay value would be immeasurable. But what games would I pack in? Here's a sample list:

Card Games:
Hearts, Spades, Bridge, Euchre, Cribbage, Canasta, Gin Rummy, Go Fish, Crazy Eights, Blackjack, Pinochle, Gin, Five Card Stud Poker, Omaha High-Low Poker, Texas Hold'Em Poker, Solitaire (Klondike, Golf, Freecell, Canfield, Accordian, Pyramid, Spider, and a bunch others)

Traditional Games:
Chess, Checkers, Chinese Checkers, Backgammon, Dominoes (Mexican Train and whatever you call the one where you score based on the end of the trains being multiples of 5), Dots, Go, MahJongg

Board Games:
Life, Monopoly, Othello, Connect Four, Battleship, Chutes and Ladders, Candy Land, Operation, Axis and Allies, Boggle, Clue, Risk, Settlers of Catan, Hungry Hungry Hippos, Trivial Pursuit, Payday, Scrabble, Simon, Sorry!, Parchesi, Stratego, Scattergories, Yahtzee

Others:
Wheel of Fortune, Hangman

Now tell me you wouldn't pay $50 to have all those on your PS2 or Xbox, and be able to play opponents all across the world via the Internet any time of day. Or you could gather the family around and play on the couch together. With that many games, you'd always have something to play.

Flaws of this plan are obvious though. Hasbro and other game manufacturers would never, ever let this happen. They're getting $20-30 each for each board game purchased, so they'd lose money out the ass by packaging so many together. In the past, board game makers have released video game versions, but they're usually mediocre, and are devoid of special features. Two notable recent examples are Monopoly Party and Trivial Pursuit Unhinged. At least TPU allowed for Xbox Live play, though their method of doing so is retarded [anybody can join at any point in the game. Dumb.]

Now, I know somebody is saying "Why would I pay for this when most of these games can be played for free at Yahoo! Games?" Well, extra features sure would have to make up for them.

Now, I don't think that the games need to have super-blown out super-realistic 3D graphics for games to be fun. Hell, keep them simple and small, so you can pack in a lot of them. This thing could sell shit-tons of copies.

Enh, enough rambling. Though I recommend Ultimate Card Games and Ultimate Brain Games for the GBA in the meantime. I'd still love to be able to play a game of Life with somebody across the country at 3AM if I felt like it though.