Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

"This game is so bad, they are giving out the full version in cereal boxes!"

Who Wants to be a Millionaire, the hit Television show, has become so popular it has spawned a whole game series. But is this a good thing? The answer is ... NO!

To start off, the game is a lot like the show, I must admit, but I hated the show to begin with and especially Regis' voice. In this one, you start off with the simple question of one or more players and then are asked if everyone knows how to play. If you don't know, it just gives you some directions on how to do the fastest finger and how to pick the answer in the game itself, if you get there of course.

When you play single player, Regis just asks you your name and you go straight to the hot seat. If you are playing multi-player, it is just like the TV show and there is a fastest finger question. This proves to be one of the most annoying parts of the multi-player game though. It would be impossible to have everyone put them in order, so the game just resorts to having everyone pick a key. It then picks the four items in a bunch of random orders. You simply press your key when you think it displays the correct order. But you can just pick six or seven keys and every time a different order comes up hit a different key before anyone else does. This provokes fights, brawls, melees, and any other name for a fight you can think of, because of course, one person always wins the cheap way. I think it would be better just playing a single player game taking turns between each other.

If you actually decide you want to continue to play the game you then get to the hot seat. It just shows you pictures of the studio and the money value you are up to, along with Regis spewing something useless out of his big mouth. You then finally get to the first question. In Who Wants to be a Millionaire? style, the first question is usually something idiotic like, ''What color is the sky?''. The questions then get harder as your progress, until eventually you miss a question, walk with the money you have, or win the one million dollars.

So now you are thinking, sounds like the game has done its job, what's the problem? Here's where the ugliness begins. Regis' voice becomes very boring, and in fact irritating after just a few plays of the game. Also after a few plays, you realize he's still saying the same three things over and over again for each money value. And he makes these really stupid remarks after you lose or quit. ''Wow, that's a big check. Put it in the bank and maybe after forty years you'll have gained enough to bye a marble or something!'' Regis, shut up!

Along the lines of repetition, the questions also show up over and over again. After you play about five times, you start getting the same one hundred to one thousand dollar questions. After ten times you start seeing the same one thousand to thirty two thousand dollar questions. After you have played it about twenty times you can easily go through the game, win the million dollars in about ten minutes, and not even use any life lines. And the ''phone-a-friend'' lifeline is obviously not really possible either. So, Regis dials up one of his mentally ill friends to help you. There's about a five percent chance they will actually give you the correct answer.

This brings me to the replay. Once you win one million dollars, there is absolutely no replay value at all. You don't want to listen to Regis drone on and there is no reason to play because you can't win anything better then the one million dollars. You will then proceed to putting the game back in the cereal box you got it from. Yes, I actually got the full version out of a cereal box. On the box, it claims to be some fifty dollar value or something. Yeah right... I would pay someone to take the game from me but that's about it.

So to recap, the game has the evil ''Regis'', who sounds like a used car salesman that trys to make witty remarks at you, the same repetitive sounds and questions over and over again, and no real replay. If you find it in your favorite cereal, either throw it away, or play it so you can give it a horrible score and worn others.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 01/08/01, Updated 01/08/01