The Nintendo Switch seems on track to recreate the mainstream success of the Wii and DS, so there’s no better time for Nintendo to once again court the large, casual audience that propelled those products' popularity. Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics is a bigger and better Switch successor to the 2006 DS game, a title that included 42 classics. This card game and board game compilation slickly packages hits that have delighted players for hundreds of years before video games even existed. With this much variety, it's impressive that Clubhouse Games maintains a consistent quality from game to game, even if not all the titles can be equally enjoyed when you're playing with friends. However, this is the closest video games get to a public domain property: You aren’t paying for anything that’s new or hard to find elsewhere.

What’s in the Box?

The 51 games in Clubhouse Games are what you might call "retirement home bangers." That’s by no means an insult. Any game that manages to last this long does so because it just works on a fundamental level. Chess and Backgammon are some of the most rewarding strategy games around. Even without money on the line, the volatile mix of luck and skill in a high-stakes game of Blackjack or Texas Hold ‘Em Poker is thrilling. Solitaire is popular enough that Microsoft faced criticism for filling the Windows 10 version with ads. The strengths of these games all remain present in this collection. 

Some games do lose a little in the translation from physical to digital. You won’t get the tactile pleasure of slamming an air hockey puck, breaking a rack of balls in billiards, or throwing a real dart into a wall. However, other games lean into their artificiality in cute ways. You’re more willing to accept simplified versions of soccer, baseball, tennis, and boxing when the matches are acted out by toys. The subtle but beautiful, colorful, and realistic visuals for materials and textures help, too.

The emphasis on worldwide classics goes deeper than just the title. When presented with this overwhelming list of games, one option for browsing them is by traveling a globe and sampling games from different countries. Tour guides give you more context for India’s Carrom, China’s Mahjong, or Hanafuda, the Japanese playing cards that gave Nintendo its start back in 1889.

Several games here are the generic versions of formulas that later became copyrighted classics. Enjoy the off-brand, but totally serviceable, original versions of Connect Four, Sorry, Uno, and Yahtzee. Intentionally or not, Clubhouse Games draws attention to how other companies have tried to seize ownership of games that previously just belonged to culture. 

There’s even stuff here for more-traditional video game fans, with fishing, shooting gallery, slot car racing, and tank combat mini-games. If Ring Fit Adventure evokes nostalgia for Wii Fit, then Clubhouse Games brings back warm feelings for anyone who remembers playing Wii Play and Wii Sports. The bowling game feels straight out of a 2006 Wii holiday party, albeit with improved motion controls. 

Around the World

With so many games across so many styles, chances are you’ll find something to like. Plus, if you buy the game for $40, it averages out to less than a dollar per game. However, these are also the kinds of games you can easily play for free in a browser, on your phone with ads, or with a cheap deck of real playing cards. Perhaps that’s why Clubhouse Games puts a surprising amount of effort into its presentation, to justify the premium experience.

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Fortunately, the decision pays off. Just navigating Clubhouse Games is way more pleasant than I would’ve expected. Menus are very clean with plenty of white space and icons that clearly communicate what game you’re picking from the crowd. The soundtrack is full of lo-fi beats that complement the gameplay. The cheery plastic figurines used to represent you and other players have shades of Hitman Go. 

Each game has a brief, but very helpful, video tutorial to go along with the text manual. The writing and voice acting for these little dialogues have a lot of personality, including some weird flirty bits for the gambling games, in particular. Beyond explanations, you can read fun facts about these games, too.

Full House

You can play against the computer and the difficulty can get pretty tough. However, many of the games here rely on the social and psychological factors of competition between multiple, real human beings. Clubhouse Games, of course, has multiplayer action, but in trying to service so many games with unique needs, it occasionally gets a little tripped up.

Specifically, it’s local multiplayer where things get tricky. Online multiplayer might as well be single-player except there’s a real player on the other end instead of a computer. But taking things offline presents its own challenges. For example, how do you play a game where players have to hide their cards? Some board game apps let players pass the device around to take turns. In Clubhouse Games, those games are just disabled if you only have one system. 

To the game’s credit, it does try to give you options when it can. If you have multiple Nintendo Switch consoles, those players can download a free Guest Pass app to join in, so at least you only need to buy one copy of the game. Mosaic Mode lets you create one big screen by physically placing multiple tablets next to each other on a flat surface, a feature this same developer teased in Super Mario Party a few years ago. Still, it’s an awkward workaround. The same goes for having to use the sideways Joy-Con controller or share the tablet touch screen in some instances. 

I appreciate how Clubhouse Games adds cohesion to play sessions. The game tracks total wins and losses even as players hop between different games. Have a party, press the random button, and start your own tabletop Olympics at the next virtual game night. 

Join the Club

The Nintendo Switch is a convenient video game console that lets you play on the TV screen at home and in your hands on the go. With Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics, the console's convenience grows with the addition of more than 50 proven gems in a single package—even if those games are by no means exclusive to this collection. Still, the compilation's polished execution makes it a safe recommendation. You can always find someone willing to play checkers. Can you say the same about Zelda?