Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

"What would I give this game for a letter grade? Hmmmm...C. Final Answer."

Who Wants to be a Millionaire used to be one of my favorite shows on TV, and the contestants would frequently remind Regis that it's much easier to shout the answers to your TV screen when you're watching at home than it is to answer the questions when you're in the infamous hot seat. Well, if answering questions in the hot seat is as hard as it is to answer questions in this game, then there are some real wimps on that show.

Okay, I shouldn't degrade those people. We all know it's easy to know the answers when we're sitting at home and we've got nothing to risk, but the people who are being quizzed probably have the right to be nervous and unsure. But this game tries to at least simulate what it's like in the Hot Seat in real life, and it doesn't exactly, um...how do I say this...work.

GAMEPLAY

The best thing I can say about the game in general is how loyal it normally is to the game we've all seen on TV. Just like in the real game, answer 15 questions you win a million dollars. (Well, fake dollars, anyway) And in case you get stuck, you can use three lifelines to help you out.

But what if there's more than one person playing. You could take turns, or you could compete in the fastest finger to see who gets to play. Now the Fastest Finger game works a bit differently than it used to on the show. Instead of having four answers and having to put them in the right order, the computer instead takes the four answers and randomly shuffles them around. When they're in the right order, you hit any letter key on the keyboard to lock in your answer. The first one to hit their key on the right order wins, and if more than one person hits it at the right time, whoever was the fastest gets to go on to play. Or, you could always purposely get the Fastest Finger wrong and listen to Regis call you a dummy and hear him say he's leaving, therefore having the program automatically close itself.

Anyhoo, once you get into the hot seat, the questioning then begins. You're shown the question and then four possible answers. So take your time to think the answer through and...Wait, hold it! You can't take your time. For whatever reason (I guess to prevent people from looking up the answer-although you could just as easily just pause the game to do it), the game gives you a time limit on how long you have before you answer the question. And if you take too long, game over for you, buddy.

Okay, so the time limits are a bit of an unwelcome addition, but I guess it's understandable. What about everything else? Well, everything else is pretty much the same.

If you get stuck on a question, you still have the three lifelines. You've got the 50-50 which automatically eliminates two incorrect answers. Also, when the game was in production, a somewhat large group of people were polled on every question and gave their input on what they thought the answer to every question was. The results are what makes up the Ask the Audience lifeline. Sometimes the lifeline is helpful, and sometimes it's not so helpful. And last but not least, you've got the Phone-a-Friend. Regis says that's his favorite lifeline; I wish I could say the same. When you use the Phone-a-Friend lifeline, you get Regis to call one his buddies. His buddies will promptly answer the phone and Regis will have a length conversation with them before finally remembering they were calling to ask a question. Then the person on the line gives an answer, and most of the time, they say they're "just guessing" (Oh well, at least we got to know how their day at work was...)

All right, so the Fastest Finger was changed around, you've got a time limit to answer questions (a somewhat short one at that considering some of the questions) and the lifelines aren't exactly reliable. Oh yes, and some of the question values seemed a little bit out of place. (Like having very strange questions for the first 5, but then having something like "Who died defending The Alamo?" for the $500,000 question) Clearly the game had a few bumps on its TV to PC journey, but that's okay, because the game still has its overall charm.

Now you might be asking yourself something. "Hey, wait a minute! You just said the game still has its overall charm. Why'd you give it a 6???" Allow me to explain. This game doesn't take long at all to get the hang of. The game doesn't have too many questions to throw at you, so you can easily win the game from memory. In fact, it's easy to the extent where it's ridiculous. Listen to this: I've literally seen a nine year old who would win the game over and over with no trouble simply because the game uses the same questions over and over and the answers are easy to remember.

That's the main reason the game lost a lot on the overall rating. Yeah, the game is fun for a little while. But then it gives you the same questions almost every other game. Then the game just gets boring.

But the review doesn't stop there. That's just the main core of the game. How does everything else score?

GRAPHICS

Well, I can say the graphics are average at best. There's not exactly anything wrong with them, but the graphics look way too plain. Sure, it's got the hot seat, but there's no one in it. The hot seat is completely empty, and there's not even a generic male player model or a generic female player model to insert. The seat's just empty. And if that wasn't plain enough, Regis isn't even in his seat. So, you've got two completely empty, plain looking chairs in the studio. Oh, and who's that I see in the fastest finger chairs? No one. Not even silohuettes of people. The Fastest Finger seats are empty as well. But that's okay, because despite the fact there's absolutely no one on stage, the audience seems pretty excited to...wait, where are the audience members?! Have the ratings dropped that low?

You get my drift? The graphics are okay, but there's absolutely no detail at all. You see the hot seat, you see the computer screens the player and Regis look at, and you see the stage. Those things aren't modelled spectacualarly, although they manage to scrape by. But no attention to detail when it comes to character models? You lazy programmers, you. I don't see why it would be so hard to at least put carboard cutouts in, considering how they put Regis in the opening video where he puts on that weird smile and shows all that money to the camera.

SOUND

Well, the sound is pretty loyal to the show, so that's good. You have the music clips you know very well if you watch the show. The music that plays during the show when someone's on the first 5 questions is in this game. Same with the next set of 5 questions, and the third and final set of 5 questions after that are all there. When you answer a question correctly, you hear the audience clapping. (Yes, there's applause but there's no one there. I guess the studio is either haunted or the entire audience decided to show up drenched in paint that makes you invisible) Regis is there and you can hear him as the game goes on. (Strange...Regis is just like the audience; you hear his voice, and yet you don't see him...)

I really don't have too many complaints about the sound. The music actually stays pretty loyal to the show, and when Regis gets one of his buddies on the line, their voice acting sounds good and actually believable. The drawback to the sound is Regis and his repetitive phrases. Allow me to explain. Let's say you're going for $4,000. He'll say something like "Okay. Here comes the $4,000 question". Then when you select an answer, (let's say it's A you're choosing) be prepared to hear something like "You said A. (after a pause that varies in length) And you couldn't be more right!" or "And you're absolutely correct!" or "and that is correct." Listen to those phrases over and over until you either win the game or you miss out on a question. (And then be prepared to hear his same victory or loser speech over and over again)

LENGTH

Have I made it clear that this game won't last you too long at all? Well, in case I haven't, here it is: this game won't last you long at all. If you've just got the patience to sit through a couple of games, you'll eventually see every question in the game, and it wouldn't take you long at all before you remember the answers to all of them and you can get through the game without using a single lifeline. (Not that it would be uncommon for the lifelines to be more of a hindrance than a help) It will only take a few playthroughs of this game for you to get the hang of it and be able to play it with little or no trouble.

PROS

+ Graphics are okay
+ Sound is loyal to the show
+ Fun to play

CONS

- No character models
- Lots of rules changed for the worse
- Too easy to master in too short an amount of time
- Lifelines aren't always too helpful
- Regis repeats his lines a little too much

CLOSING NOTES

This game is fun to play, make no mistake about that. But it's just so easy to get the hang of and there are so few questions that an elementary school student can win the game without trying hard at all. So if you want a game based on a trivia gameshow, then this game will probably disappoint you. The graphics are okay and the sound is pretty good, but this game's got a lot of problems with it that'll bring the overall experience down. So, unless you're a diehard fan of the show and you don't have this game for whatever reason, then you might as well give this a shot since it's not even too expensive. But if you are a more casual gamer and you see this in a store, do what the contestants on the show do when they don't want to risk it, and "take your money and run."

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/19/06