Jeopardy! (XBOX360 Demo)

Hit it or Quit it?

Year: 2012 -- Developer: Pipeworks -- Publisher: THQ

First impression:
On the back of yesterday's Wheel Of Fortune, I'm going to check out the demo for Jeopardy.  Knowing that it's by the same company, Pipeworks, and published by THQ, I expect this really to just be the same as WoF, except a different word game.

That's actually kind of exciting.  Yeah, the voices are kind of lame, but I expect decent camera work, a solid presentation of the game, and lots of features I would be excited for, but won't be able to see in the demo.  Let's make sure they didn't screw this one up!

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Fooled around for:  10 minutes (1 full game)
Notice the time there.. only 10 minutes for the full game!?  The demo didn't even let you run a full board.  It only gives you the first two columns.   This made for a very short game.

Otherwise, as expected, the game looks like the show.  And it looks like WoF.  Somehow, I wasn't expecting them to have re-used the character models and sound clips and everything.  It looks like the same three people happened to get on WoF AND Jeopardy.  WTF?!   At least on WoF, I could play a real, full game.

Alex' sound bits were good though.  He voices all of the questions and all of the answers.  He must not have had much else going on or something, or there really isn't much variety in the questions after a few games.  There is a little weirdness when certain bits are spliced together, otherwise without looking, it usually sounds just like him.

Except overall, this really wasn't as fun of an experience as WoF.  Had I thought about it, I probably could have expected it.  One of the biggest things about "real" Jeopardy is that you either know the answer or you don't.  In turning that into a video game, they decided to go multiple choice with it.  This means that every now and then you might allllmost know it, and you can just look at the answers and figure it out.  That doesn't count!

Also, Jeopardy is harder anyways, of course.  This is why I never wanted to be on Jeopardy, but I would totally try WoF.  That is, unless I could get on Teen Jeopardy.  That might turn out okay...

Multiple choice!?

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Hit it or Quit it?
Considering they dumbed down one of the most important aspects of this game, and it's usually too hard for me to have fun being in control, I definitely would be quitting this.  Especially since if I bought this AND WoF, it would mostly feel like playing the same game with all of the similar assets.  They should have just bundled the two games together, and more people would probably end up playing this.  As it is though, quit it.

Wheel of Fortune (XBOX360 Demo)

Hit it or Quit it?

Year: 2012 -- Developer: Pipeworks -- Publisher: THQ

First impression:
What is there to say about a first impression about Wheel of Fortune?  I expect to spin a very large wheel, guess letters, buy vowels, solve puzzles.  I do also expect the game to come off as pretty cheesy, as most of these video game versions of TV shows like this tend to turn out.  Maybe some lame voiceovers.  Maybe some "awesome" e-"prizes".   The Sony and THQ intro logos made the game seem pretty fancy, but the cover art has Pat and Vanna look like bobble heads, so we'll see how this actually turns out.

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Fooled around for:  ~35 minutes (One full game)
On one hand, it was about what I was expected.

On the other, it was actually better than I expected.  A lot of it has to do with presentation.  Yeah, the contestant voiceovers were a little cheesy and repetitive   Pat and Vanna weren't -as- repetitive, but they probably would be after a few games.  Their scripts in general actually weren't so bad as far as delivery.  Also, the timing triggers working pretty well, causing Pat to say "slow down" or "go go go" when appropriate to where you were about to land.

The best parts about the presentation were how much it actually looked like the show.  The music, camera angles, the cuts around the set, the wheel, everything looked like you were just playing the show.  That's about as good as you can expect to get with a game based on a word game.

One thing I didn't even think about going into it was online play!  Being the demo, I couldn't try it, but that would be a huge selling point for me.  I've always thought I would do pretty good on the show, and playing against other real people is about as close as will probably ever get.   It would probably one of the few games I would actually pull my headset out for, just to get into the game a little more.

The game keeps track of various stats, and also prizes that you win, so you have some tracking of what you've done, considering it's going to feel like a lot of the same.  It also has leaderboards, to compare yourself to people you aren't even playing!



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Hit it or Quit it?
Originally, as I was typing this, I thought this version was an XBLA game, so I expected it to be probably 10 bucks (though I hoped for 5).  As I went to check the price, I realized this is actually just a "demo", so it's probably actually a full game that you have to buy on disc.  For probably 30-40 bucks.  For that amount of money, I'm out.  If it ever came through the e-downloads for something closer to 15 bucks, I might jump on it.  5 bucks, I'm there, instantly, playing it every day.

The game itself, I would hit it pretty hard, because I love Wheel of Fortune, I love easy achievements, and the presentation of this game was actually very well put together for being a cheesy TV show "port".  For the price they probably want me to pay to play it though, I'm going to have to quit it.  Just checked, yeah, it's looking like 30-35.  With great remorse, I will have to quit it.  Maybe I will catch it in the bargain bin in a couple years....

Voltron (XBLA)

Hit it or Quit it?

Year: 2011 -- Developer: Behaviour Entertainment -- Publisher: THQ

First impression:
To be honest, I really barely know anything about Voltron.  That's part of the reason I downloaded this demo.  I have no idea what this could be like.  The only thing I've seen so far is what may have been the actual opening to the show.  It was definitely animation from the show, I'm just not sure if that speech that the narrator gave was original or not.  I know Voltron as "not quite transformers, but quite the following regardless".  As for the game, I'm guessssssing.. something like a 3d beat-em-up?  Lots of "movie games" do that.  Maybe this will be some sort of crazy new design.

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Fooled around for:  9 minutes (1 level, length of demo)
I pretty much called it, except it wasn't even as good as most bad "movie games".  I don't know if it's so bad because I'm missing the nostalgia or what, but that was just boring and clunky.  The clips from the show were kind of entertaining, even though I don't feel any connection with them.  The game itself was kind of like a twin stick shooter, except with slow weapon, slow movement and the camera is too far out to actually enjoy seeing anything blow up.

The game felt generic, despite having such heavy ties to a franchise.  You can pick from any of the 5 "cats", which have different statistics, but what determines each, I have no idea.  It's hard to even tell what all of the stats are about anyways.

Then you run around, shoot your weapon, awkwardly jump at air-borne enemies, and eventually blow up. Then you have to survive outside your cat for 10 seconds, while it auto-repairs.  Then you can get back into it, ready to get blown up again.

I don't know if the music is from the show.  It sounds like this theme might be "the theme", but it's pretty obnoxious.


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Hit it or Quit it? (800 MSP)
I don't know if this game is supposed to be huge or what.  Or if that price is because it's some overhyped franchise, but based on that 1 level, there is no way I would be paying 10 bucks for this.  Even the "buy me" videos and screen shots don't give you any indication that things get better, or more interesting.  I don't think there's leveling on your character, the levels look the same, except you are flying in one.  That looks more annoying than walking, which is pretty bad anyways.  The ONLY appeal might be if you have 4 other XBOX Live friends (or one other "RL" friend) who just has to experience everything about Voltron.  Then, maybe because of the multi-player aspect, you could have fun, but even then, I'm not sure how.

Quit it 5 times. One for each lion.

The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends - SNES

Year: 1993
Publisher:  THQ
Developer: Imagineering INC

First Glance
I had to restart the game and pause on the info screen because there is no splash screens telling me who was involved with this game.  I have a feeling that's going to be a bad sign.  Also, there's no demo footage, just the standard Rocky and Bullwinkle title screen with Rocky flying around.  I never really liked this show that much, so I'm not expecting much.  Especially with what little I have been able to learn so far about the game.

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Played for: 20 minutes

So, this is another first, and I bet won't be the last.  Before playing this, I didn't think that I had played it before.  Pretty quickly though, the memories started flooding back, and I totally have played this game before.. and my memories seem to think I've played it quite a bit.  Like I owned it or rented it a lot or something.  The catch is, my memories don't seem to think I was holding a SNES controller though, so that's probably why I didn't remember.  I'm betting I played it on the Genesis.  Either way, I definitely think I played it a lot.  It was sooo familiar.  Bonking Bullwinkle's head on rocks, gathering and throwing berries, climbing up the mountain in the first level, etc.

That aside, and for whatever nostalgia is affecting my opinion, it actually isn't too bad.  It's tricky, but not annoying tricky like most of the platformers have been thus far.  It feels like when you made a mistake, it was your fault for not seeing it coming, not remembering it was there, or just plan not paying attention.

Also, even though I don't really like Rocky and Bullwinkle, the intro scene was pretty entertaining.  Lots of broken 4th wall stuff like they often do.  Also a "Hey, isn't this how our Game Boy game started?" was pretty funny.

There are a couple mini-games you can play before the level to get an extra life before you go in, and that was super familar too.  So much, that I killed it, and totally got my extra life.  I wonder how much more would seem familiar if I kept going.  I seem to remember playing it alot, but I really doubt I actually made it too far into the game.

Graphics are pretty good, though the animation is a little choppy.  Controls are pretty good.  Precision jumping is tricky, but it usually is.  Could definitely be worse though.

Hit it or Quit it?
Surprisingly, I would actually hit it again.  Probably not as a first choice, but if it fell into the bed, I wouldn't kick it out.  Would be interesting to see how far into the game my memories actually go.