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By Anthony Basileo on July 13th, 2008
Jeopardy. Who Wants to be a Millionaire. The Weakest Link. Those are just a few of the more popular television game shows that people have spent their weekday evenings watching. Or perhaps playing? The three in particular listed have been given a video game rendition or two in the past. Unless you have a group of friends over, game show games tend to lose their luster rather quickly. Questions get repetitive. The British chick’s insults become less offensive. You’d rather watch Sean Connery give Trebek a hard time on SNL’s Jeopardy than play the PS2 version.
So Gameloft decided to make its own TV game show called...TV Show King. Okay, so the title could have been better. Anyway, this is one of the first WiiWare games released in the U.S. It has elements of Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Millionaire and just about any other game show you can think of.
TV Show King supports up to four players, and the more you have at the house, the more fun the game is to play. It’s nice to see Mii integration used here instead of pre-created characters. Using yourself, or a version of yourself draws you in. Anyone else remember Ravi from The Weakest Link video game? I’m probably the only one. After choosing your character, game randomly selects other Miis from the audience to play. The reactions on their faces when they are chosen are quite amusing.
"...the more you have at the house, the more fun the game is to play"
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Questions include history, entertainment, science, sports and a few others. There are supposedly over 3000 questions in TV Show King, which is impressive. It seems, however, that the game doesn’t remember which ones have been asked already, so you will occasionally see repeats. Some questions are ridiculously easy (Which of the following items would you not find in a kitchen?), and some of the choices for answers are just silly (You would not find a polar bear in an African desert).
"Some questions are ridiculously easy"
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Besides correctly answering questions, you can also earn money by spinning the wheel. Simply press the A button and swing the remote. This can also be where the game gets a little cheap. You or your opponents can easily catch up or fall behind depending on where the wheel lands. Fortunately, you can choose whether you want to risk danger by choosing whether to spin or not.
Overall the game’s graphics are solid. The TV-style production is nice. It’s very colorful with lights flashing everywhere. The host, Jerry, looks like a cross between Bob Saget and Jerry Seinfeld. The "Vanna White" of the game does nothing but show leaderboards and bonus question values. Still, she’s cute.
"The TV-style production is nice"
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The sound is decent. The host has a lot of voiced dialogue (even though his mouth doesn’t match what he says). It would have been nice if the questions were read out loud. That’s nothing new, considering most, if not all, game show games have text-only questions, but it would have been nice if they changed it up here. The audience is responsive to what is happening during the game. Nothing comes out of the mouths of the participants though, which is a bummer. DJ K-ly keeps the beats goin’ with generic game show and techno/hip-hop music.
TV Show King really is a great multiplayer game. The presentation is nice, and Mii intregration was a great idea. The problem is that without friends, the game gets pretty dull. Lone wolves will want to steer clear, but if your buddies are hangin’ at your place with nothing to do and you’ve got 1000 Wii points, download this game off of Wiiware and have some fun. |
