Article content continued

What are the games like? Well, in one, you place your Joy-Con on a flat surface, then pretend like it’s a phone. First player to pick it up when it rings wins. In another, one player swings a sword while the other claps her hands to try to stop it before it strikes. In a boxing game players mime punches – straight, uppercut, hook – as directed. Still another has players striking a yoga pose while trying to keep the Joy-Con balanced and as still as possible.

These – and around 20 more games – can be played individually, in a shuffle mode, or in a team board game mode for between two and 20 people where each side chooses a player to compete as new games come up, with the winners getting a chance to move a token around a snaking board towards a finish line.

It’s meant to be a bit of simple, social fun. And perhaps I would have had more fun with it had I felt as though the games involved even a modicum of skill. Most don’t. In fact, in many I discovered that I was better off putting in as little effort as possible rather than mimicking the actors.

Here’s an example: One game has players doing their best impersonation of a runway model by shaking their hips in time to the music while strutting around the room. I was disinclined to do this. So I simply sat in my chair and moved the Joy-Con forward and back in time with the beat. My score was more than twice that of my daughter, who was working her butt off, wagging her hips in imitation of the actors.

And it’s not just that game. Dancing games can be played (and won) while laying on a couch, sword fights can be successfully waged with your chin resting on one hand, and air guitar matches require only the ability to wag a controller in time with a beat.