FUN(NY) CD-i Party Games: GIRLS' CLUB! & 3rd Degree

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Retro STrife
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FUN(NY) CD-i Party Games: GIRLS' CLUB! & 3rd Degree

Postby Retro STrife » December 26th, 2016, 11:22 pm

The Philips CD-i is like the Mars of video game systems.... it looks barren, but there's so much uncharted territory that we just might find life if someone ever takes the time to explore it. Here are two one-of-a-kind games that almost no one has ever heard of--Girls' Club and 3rd Degree--that might just make great retro "party games" for a drinking night with a few friends. I played both of these games last night with my girlfriend and my brother.

First up is Girls' Club from 1992. The minute I accidentally stumbled upon this on ebay, I had to have it...I couldn't throw my $15 away fast enough. I've attached photos here of the game and if you don't feel the same way, then we have very different senses of humor... It instantly reminded me of Dream Phone, the board game for preteen girls that used to be on commercials when I was a kid in the 90s. I'm not sure whether Girls' Club came before or after Dream Phone, but it's a similar premise. It's targeted at preteen girls and the goal is to meet some cute high school boys, learn about each of their personalities, and decide who would be your perfect date. At the end, you go on a date with that guy and, depending on how you did during the game, your date will either go good or bad. Each game lasts about 45 minutes. As a added bonus for '90s kids, the game stars Heidi Lucas, best known from Nickelodeon's "Salute Your Shorts". This game is great if you have a funny group of friends that can provide some running commentary throughout the game. We instantly gravitated toward Patrick... the bongo-playing writer who wore MC Hammer pants and spouted ridiculous poetry. The other guys were losers too, but he was the most unintentionally funny. I really hope that these weren't the guys that girls were looking for in middle school... Also a positive--the FMV video is impressive in this game, something no system but the CD-i could pull off in the early 90s. On the bad side, the games run a little long and you won't want to play more than one game. Also, the game promises 30 guys to meet, but you only use 4 guys per game.... probably great for replay value as a 12 year old girl, but a bit disappointing for 20 and 30 somethings who just want to play once or twice for laughs. Really though, how many 12 year old girls had a CD-i back in the day?? It's amazing that this game was made. But there's no other game like it. Verdict? For the target audience, 12 year old girls, I give this game an F. For 20+ year old guys and girls, it depends on how funny your friends are and how many drinks you have, but this game could easily be a B. For a good video of this game in action, check out this link:

http://www.polygon.com/2014/7/24/593298 ... a-have-fun


As for 3rd Degree.... I'm going to post about that one separately, next.
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Retro STrife
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Re: FUN(NY) CD-i Party Games: GIRLS' CLUB! & 3rd Degree

Postby Retro STrife » December 27th, 2016, 12:41 am

Next up is 3rd Degree from 1993. This is a "game show" style game, and requires at least 3 live players to play. It's more serious than Girls Club, as it was targeted at adult gamers, though the two "hosts" due attempt to chime in with bad attempts at humor. In each round, the game selects one player to be on the "hot seat", one to be the "challenger", and one to be the "judge". The player on the hot seat is presented with an awkward social situation acted out in posed photographs by the hammiest actors you'll ever see. Categories include Love, Family, Career, and Money. Would you lie to protect your boss who is having an affair? If you got an awful gift from a new love interest, what would you do? If you found $1 million, would you keep it? The hot seat player gets 3 options to choose and secretly selects one. The challenger's goal is then to guess the hot seat players answer. If the challenger guesses correctly, both players get points. If the answers do not match, then the judge comes into play... the hot seat player must advocate for his answer to the judge, and then the challenger advocates for why he knows the other player better than himself. (For example, the hot seat player might insist that he would return the $1 million to its rightful owner, while the challenger argues that there's no way the hot seat player would actually give up the money.) The judge breaks the tie and decides who is actually correct, which awards all the points to that player. The player with the most points at the end wins. This is a good game to play in short spurts with friends, family, and/or a significant other. It's interesting to see how others respond, and how well you know them. For example, in one round you get to select the category that the hot seat player will answer to, and my girlfriend stuck me with the "Love" category to see how I would respond to an awkward relationship scenario. It was interesting to see if I could guess my brother's answer in the "Family" category for a family in-fighting scenario. On the negative side, the game moves slowly, which causes it to get boring by the end. My girlfriend liked the game a lot though, and says she would play again. This game is what you make of it, but it's worth a couple playthroughs and I give it a C+.
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Rev
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Re: FUN(NY) CD-i Party Games: GIRLS' CLUB! & 3rd Degree

Postby Rev » December 27th, 2016, 12:44 am

Girls Club is right up my alley, lol. This looks hilarious. Watching the video right now... Since I don't own a CD-i this is as close as I can get. Thanks for posting this. :)

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Retro STrife
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Re: FUN(NY) CD-i Party Games: GIRLS' CLUB! & 3rd Degree

Postby Retro STrife » December 27th, 2016, 1:21 am

Rev wrote:Girls Club is right up my alley, lol. This looks hilarious. Watching the video right now... Since I don't own a CD-i this is as close as I can get. Thanks for posting this. :)


Oh yeah, Girls Club is definitely the star of the show here. It epitomizes the "so bad it's good" category... it's so one-of-a-kind, it's premise is so ridiculous, and it might just be the most '90's game ever made... all adding up to a must-have game for me.

3rd degree is actually more of a legitimate party game. It's premise is very unique and fairly well executed (by early 90s standards), which made it stand out for me. It's more intriguing than funny, as it's interesting to see the other players' answers and try to guess them. It's worth a play or two for legitimate gaming, if you have friends that can stomach the early 90s production values. Fortunately it's not all serious, as those production values are also good for mocking and unintentional laughs during the game.

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Re: FUN(NY) CD-i Party Games: GIRLS' CLUB! & 3rd Degree

Postby VideoGameCritic » December 31st, 2016, 11:38 am

I have got to review these!!

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Retro STrife
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Re: FUN(NY) CD-i Party Games: GIRLS' CLUB! & 3rd Degree

Postby Retro STrife » December 31st, 2016, 2:32 pm

VideoGameCritic wrote:I have got to review these!!


Looking forward to it! These are good games to get the wife involved too. She'll enjoy Girls Club for the laughs. And 3rd Degree can be fun even for non-gamers. My girlfriend enjoyed it more than me and my brother. 3rd Degree is probably best played with couples anyway... they'll get the most enjoyment out of putting their significant other on the hot seat for a tough relationship question from the "Love" category, and also seeing if they can correctly guess their significant other's answers.

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Re: FUN(NY) CD-i Party Games: GIRLS' CLUB! & 3rd Degree

Postby Retro STrife » March 27th, 2017, 10:25 am

I played Girls' Club again recently with 4 players and, I have to say, it holds up well during a second playthrough and was just as unintentionally funny. The game includes 30 guys and you only compete for 4 guys per game, so that allows for several good playthroughs. Each game lasts about 45 minutes to an hour. This time it was my girlfriend and her parents (both non-gamers), which made it even more interesting. It was funny as her mom had to guess which teen guy her dad would pick as his dream date.

Of course, no one picks a real choice--instead you try to date the one with the funniest potential. Initially we gravitated toward the scrawny, nerdy Asian kid with big glasses, but eventually we settled on the weird, artsy fat kid who knew he was ugly but had an ex-girlfriend vouch for him having a great personality.... Yes, these were the studs that Philips thought teen girls wanted to fight over in the early '90s. Says a lot about why the company failed in gaming... In the end credits, the developers thank a drama club at a high school in California--so my guess is that they decided to be cheap and just used that one school's drama club to find guys and had to turn a bunch of drama nerds into desirable chick magnets. Instead it's a mess of losers and unintentionally offensive stereotypes. But their failure is your gain--everyone alive should pick this game up ASAP!


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