NFL Football Trivia Challenge ('94 - '95 Edition)

"Good challenge for its target audience"

NFL Football Trivia Challenge ('94 - '95 Edition)

[note: this review was written in 1995, and some material in the game may now be out-of-date]

Philips and CapDisc, for CD-i, does not require digital-video card

PROS: Tough yet illuminating questions, strong production values, fast and exciting game-play

CONS: Small question database, doesn't mark use of questions, no one-player option

CUT TO THE CHASE: The kick is up... and it's good!

Do you know which city Super Bowl IX was played in? Who's scored the most touchdowns in San Francisco 49'er history? The only NFL team to play its home games in the state of New York?

If not -- or if you're not from the US -- skip this review and go back to the other CD-i reviews.

But if you said ''New Orleans'', ''Jerry Rice'', and ''The Buffalo Bills''... and especially if you said ''well, duh!'' immediately afterwards... then the NFL Football Trivia Challenge is for you.

The disc plays like an actual football game -- you and an opponent answer questions to gain yardage and march the ball downfield in hopes of making a touchdown or a field goal. The faster you answer a question, the more yardage you'll pick up if you're correct. Blow too many and you'll face fourth down, meaning you either ''punt'' and give the ball to your opponent on his 20-yard line, or answer a question for a three-point field goal if you're within the 35.

Each question takes one minute off the game clock, so with four quarters of 15-minutes each, you'll answer 60 questions in a normal game (more, of course, if you go into overtime).

With 1,500 questions split up among three difficulty levels (rookie, veteran, pro), you'll consume the database for a given level fairly quickly. And unlike other CD-i game-shows like Joker's Wild and Jeopardy, the game doesn't use the machine's storage to mark which questions have already been used. As a practical upshot, you're going to get repeat questions before too long.

On the plus side, the gameplay is remarkably fast and furious for a trivia title. Since yardage is earned by answering fast, you'll want to quickly scan a question, hit the question-mark icon, and immediately pick out an answer. Time is measured by a 20-second clock under the game clock, and answering with 12 or more seconds left is always good for first-down yardage.

A strategy point here: with four multiple-choice answers, random guessing should yield a correct answer one out of every four plays. And with four downs to make a first-down, that means you should always be able to make first downs, as long as you answer quickly. In practice, of course, you're likely to have runs of bad luck. But in any case, quick guessing is better in the long run than careful deliberation.

The production values on the title are sumptious. The game is hosted by the voices of CBS football broadcasters Pat Summerall and Tom Brookshier, who offer help and make appropriate commentary about your play throughout the game. And yes, they use that all-time classic cliche about failed field-goals, ''that could come back to haunt them.''

The interface is simple (once you figure out that you should hit the ''?'' icon ASAP to bring up a list of answers) and the screen layout is well thought-out. A picture window on the right shows either an image appropriate to the question, or one of 300 video clips. This being a base-case title, the clips are small and a little jumpy, but perfectly adequate as illustrations for the questions. In fact, since the rest of the screen is packed with so much information, the video window doesn't look as small as it does in other titles (e.g., Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia).

NFL Football Trivia Challenge has an admittedly limited appeal -- CD-i owners who enjoy US pro football, and who can find an opponent with a similar interest (if only this game had a one-player mode!) -- but for those players, the disc will be well worth the $30 asking price.
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©1995 Chris Adamson

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/01/01, Updated 04/01/01