Jeopardy!

"What is a bad game show simulation?"

Jeopardy! for the Nintendo 64 could have been a thousand times better if Gametek actually made an effort to make this game as good as possible. It looks like a product that was crudely slapped together without any thought for the quality. Sure, it's Jeopardy, plain and simple - one of the most popular quiz shows in history - but it simply isn't a quality product.

Jeopardy! would probably be a very nice game. I think it had a lot of potential. But most game shows really have to get scaled down a bit when converted to computer form. Unfortunately, Gametek took this theory a little bit too far, and turned Jeopardy! into Silent Jeopardy! for the time that you play this game. Can you say ''suck'', or what? And if you don't understand what I mean, well, I'll make it really clear in this next paragraph.

Other than the videos of Alex Trebek making a few statements - ''Let's start with the first round, the Jeopardy round, with the one Daily Double....'' - the game is mostly static. Players just stand there at their podiums without any real form of realism to them. I'm sure if I walked inside the screen and decided to push them over, they'd just fall to the floor like cardboard cutouts. Pathetic? I'd say. The most dynamic object on the screen is the usual Jeopardy! set, and everything else is just flat. Even Wheel of Fortune - which was an embarrassment in itself - is better than Jeopardy! when it comes to contestant motion. While it may be simple movement of sprites clapping, at least it's movement. I would have to say even the SNES version of Jeopardy! is better than this.

Other than those HORRIBLE graphics that the Nintendo 64 can clearly handle, and then some, Jeopardy! really is not that bad. You simply pick a category and a dollar amount from a board of 30 clues, and you are read an answer, which you then have to respond to in the form of a question. Pretty simple. There are also daily doubles up on the board which allow you to risk up to all of your winnings on one question. Double Jeopardy doubles the cash amounts, and Final Jeopardy is one final question you can risk up to all your moolah on.

And surprise, surprise, GameTek is actually pretty true to the show with all of these. While the Final Jeopardy set up is rather silly - ''Turn away from the screen, ______ and _______ while ________ writes his wager and his response'' - the rest is pretty good. The game includes 4,000 questions that can be easy or difficult depending on the circumstances. Pretty good for a quiz show game, which ensures that you can go through about 70 games or so without getting repeats in all likelihood. That's pretty good for a quiz show title, and ensures that you can hold on to this one for a little while. Lucky for us, the game has also included loose spelling features for those who aren't exactly good on spelling proper names.

The sound and audio in the game is reasonable, and in all likelihood you should be able to get by. Alex Trebek is audible, and all the bells and whistles that Jeopardy has are there (although you really don't hear very many of them in such a professional game). It manages to keep the experience reasonable, but otherwise it really doesn't save a game that's just level one quality. Period.

Up to three players can play, and for the most part it's all right when you compete. I, in all honesty, find moving a cursor from letter to letter a real pain, but unfortunately the N64 did not come with a keyboard, so I kind of have to deal with it. Unfortunately, it kind of takes the ''blitz'' out of the Jeopardy game. It's not just a matter of going from question to question in a matter of fifteen seconds like on the real show. This sort of thing really slows the game down, but luckily a ''fill in'' option was included to speed things up. It's simple: fill in a bit of the word, and when it appears, press R to include it as your answer.

Jeopardy! could have been a great video game that was successfully shot by Gametek's incompetence. Unfortunately, there was just nothing to it - no glitz, no nothing. All that it can be called is just a shell of a game show. Let's all do ourselves a favour and save our money for other games, while appreciating the real show on television that is far and away better than the video game. Sorry Gametek, but you successfully failed your course in creating games and maybe that's why you bit the dust.

Final score: 2.9

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 03/07/00, Updated 11/23/02