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....