Carnival Games recreates a Jersey shore like atmosphere, minus the cotton candy, the overexposed ladies and the slabs of beef they call their boyfriends. It also lacks most of the fun, thanks to some games that just don't translate well to the Wii. We want to love it, but we can only play Alley Ball so many times.

When it comes to maximizing your dollar, Carnival Games delivers enough content to justify its $39.99 price. You get over 25 popular games, including the aforementioned Alley (Skee) Ball, Spilled Milk (knock over milk bottles), Balloon Darts, Clown Splash (blast a clown's mouth with water to fill a balloon), Ring Toss and Dunk Tank. Some of them offer mild amusement. Others, on the other hand, made us sleepy and even annoyed at times.

Part of the disappointment comes from the questionable Wii controls. There's really no skill to making baskets in Hoops, other than figuring out the appropriate angle to hold the controller, and during Nerves of Steel (you pass a metal ring through an electrified bar), the ring got stuck and we couldn't continue.

In addition, some of the games had us reaching for the Wii's power button, in particular, Prize Claw and Dunk Tank. There's nothing fun about watching the claw dig itself into a bunch of prizes and come up empty. As for Dunk Tank, we can only dunk the same non-player character so many times before getting bored.

That's really Carnival Games' biggest problem. We get what publisher Global Star Software tried to do, and there's a possibility that kids and their parents will enjoy this game, especially with the four person multiplayer mode. However, unlike Wii Sports, which makes better use of the remote, this game doesn't hold our interests. Sure, it has all of the games and the stupid prizes, but it's somewhat boring.

Then again, we don't have to wade through hundreds of people, waste an hour searching for a parking spot and spend tons of cash on games we can't win. Carnival Games won't hold your interest for more than a couple of days, but depending on your situation (playing with friends and/or family), it could be time well spent.