Developer Marmalade Game Studio has brought The Game of Life 2 to the Nintendo Switch. The hybrid console has become a hotbed for board games and other similar experiences like Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics, giving players plenty of opportunities to try traditional tabletop games in digital form.
Like the original board game, The Game of Life 2 tasks players with advancing through adult life. This goes from starting a career path all the way through to retirement, with plenty of choices to be made along the way in regards to education, family life, and financial investments. Anyone who has played the original game will be familiar with the basic mechanics, where players use a chance spinner to determine how far to move and to decide the outcome of events. In that sense, The Game of Life 2 is incredibly easy to pick up and play, making it a good choice for those unfamiliar with video games or with young children.
Each turn is made up of several stages. Players move a set number of spaces according to what they span on the spinner and then resolve any actions that pop up by landing on or passing certain spaces. These can range from deciding whether to go to college or get married to smaller decisions about taking a guitar lesson or investing in property. Every decision will have some sort of effect and players are rewarded or punished according to the choices made and the chance element of the spinner.
This sequel does make some important changes to the fundamental mechanics of the original board game. Most notably, the scoring system now takes into account elements other than just money so that each match doesn’t just devolve into a race to get the most cash. Users are rewarded at the end with points according to how much knowledge, happiness, and wealth they have accumulated, with a significant bonus given to the player with the highest amount of each. This does add another layer of depth to the experience, meaning that players can strategize and make a variety of choices rather than just strictly chasing money.
While The Game of Life 2 is a pretty faithful adaptation of a board game, this does have its drawbacks. There are regular opportunities to compete against other players in things like dancing competitions from event cards but there are no actual mini-games. Instead, the winner is chosen simply by who spins the highest. While this fits in with the original game, which featured a lot of chance-based events, it is a very boring way to resolve things - especially in a video game that can have far more interactivity than a board game ever could.
There’s also a big problem when it comes to the boards themselves. The Game of Life 2 comes with three distinct boards for players to choose from, with a fourth option available behind a paywall, but the only thing that changes is the aesthetic. The environment and decorations are altered and things like job titles are switched but the different boards amount to little more than a skin swap. The consequence of this is that playing just a few matches of The Game of Life 2 feels repetitive and tedious, as the best route to take and choices to make remain the same regardless of whether players use the standard board or the fantasy kingdom one.
In the end, it feels like The Game of Life 2 is a missed opportunity. Some nice touches and features are included to modernize the gameplay and add some extra depth to a very familiar game, but the overall package is let down by the fact that there’s just not enough variety when it comes to The Game of Life 2 boards, a criticism that has even been thrown at games like Super Mario Party. But this game doesn’t have the excellent mini-games or unpredictability of the latter series to make amends, leaving it at the bottom of the pile when it comes to deciding which party game to break out at the next social gathering.
The Game of Life 2 is available on PC and Nintendo Switch. Screen Rant was provided with a digital Nintendo Switch code for the purposes of this review.