Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

"Lack of replay value messes up a potentially great game"

It’s only natural that a popular TV game show would have its own computer game. It now has two PC games, and one Playstation game, so I am going to review the first ever Who Wants to be a Millionaire game.

GRAPHICS 9/10

Millionaire is a quiz show game, so you can’t expect much to look at, graphics wise. However, what there is to look at is sweet. At the Millionaire studios, you can see the “hot seat” that the TV show contestants sit on. Everything looks great, and that’s a good thing.

GAMEPLAY 9/10

There is not much to know for the controls. All you need to know how to do is type your name, and push “A”, “B”, “C”, or “D” to select your answer to a question. Simple, right?

There are two sort of modes in Millionaire. You can do the fastest finger mode or the regular game mode. Fastest finger is for more than one person, so you can decide who will go to the hot seat. I figure you probably know the show (who doesn’t), so I won’t explain these that much. The regular game mode’s name says it all. You just go through the set of 15 questions to try and win a million bucks. You will have your three lifelines, 50/50, phone a friend, and ask the audience. 50/50 will take away two wrong answers, leaving you with the correct answer & a wrong answer. Phone a friend has Regis calling one of his buddies, and they give you help, or atleast try to anyways. Ask the audience is just like the TV show, except they polled 50 random citizens for the game. That’s all.

SOUND 10/10

The sound in Millionaire is absolutely great! Everything sounds very clean and it is easy to understand what Regis is saying. The music from the TV show is here, and it is the exact same as on TV. It adds the drama & intensity from the show to the game. I don’t know really what else to say about the sound, except it’s great!

FUN FACTOR 6/10

You will have fun the first few times you play Millionaire, but after those times, you will probably not play it for a long time. Why? Because of repeat questions. Play this game five or six times, and you’ll be fine, but after that you will have repeat after repeat after repeat. There’s not too many questions in the game. Another thing that takes away from the fun is Regis. He’s ok the first few times you play it, but then you will realize that he says the same stuff over and over again. He talks too much when you go to a new question, and the phone a friends take forever since Regis & his buddy talk about their lives instead of the question! I haven’t had a chance to play the 2nd version of Millionaire yet, so I don’t know if it’s improved or not.

REPLAY VALUE 2/10

This is Millionaire’s BIG, and I mean BIG, flaw. You will love playing this game until all you get is repeat questions. I’ve covered the repeats in the “Fun Factor” section, so there’s no need getting in depth here. The only reason I didn’t give it a one is because you might want to play it with some friends or family later on, and after a few years you might want to play it again.

CHALLENGE 7/10

Why a seven, you ask? Well, because winning a million dollars is pretty tough. The first ten questions will be repeats if you’ve played the game a lot, but the last five questions will be much harder, especially the $1 million question. Good luck with those.

RENT OR BUY?

You can’t rent computer games, so I’ll have to tell you if you should buy it or not. Well, you can pick up the game for about $15 to $20, so it’s not that much money. If you’re a hardcore fan of the show, buy it. If you’re a regular fan of the show like me, then I wouldn’t recommend buying it. Just go play it at a friend’s house if they have it.

WHAT’S HOT

- Neat-o graphics
- Great sound
- Captures the feeling of the TV show
- It’s a “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” game!

WHAT’S NOT

- All of those darn repeat questions!
- Regis is as annoying as ever
- You won’t be playing this very long

FINAL ANALYSIS:

You will love Who Wants to be a Millionaire the first few times you play it, but after that it will just collect dust on your shelf. Like I said in the “Rent or Buy” section, regular fans should play it at a friend’s house, but hardcore fans should buy it. Overall, this game gets a 6 out of 10 from me, Shady. Booyah.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 06/23/00, Updated 06/23/00