Who Wants to Be a Millionaire 2nd Edition

"If only Regis would shut his mouth."

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire is the TV hit that has taken America by storm. It revived ABC, made Regis Philbin cool again, made lots of people rich, etc. So of course, it's going to be milked for every cent that it possibly can. There have been computer games, a board game, a soundtrack coming out soon...and now the PSX game. (Note: As far as I know, this is a port of the PC 2nd edition of this game, the only exception being the fastest finger question portion. Also, the game was made by Jellyvision, the masterminds behind the popular You Don't Know Jack series.)

When it begins, you are given the choice between one or two players. If you choose one player, you will go straight to the ''hot seat,'' while if you choose two players, you have a fastest finger question. This works pretty well, except for the fact that if you don't get it right the first time, you do it again. And again. And again, and again for about 10 times until Regis gets sick of you and decides to leave. Then the game restarts, which shows Jellyvision's unique sense of humor.

When you get into the hot seat, the game follows the TV show almost exactly. There are 15 questions to answer to get the million, increasing in difficulty, and if you miss one, you're done. You have 3 lifelines. You can ask the audience, which bring up actual data that was obtained from a survey of people. This is a nice touch, because you know that the writers weren't deliberately trying to screw you up. You can take the 50/50, which leaves two answers, one wrong, one correct. Finally, the only difference from TV to game, is the Phone-A-Friend. Regis calls one of his friends, who may or may not know the answer. They do tell you the wrong answer sometimes, but more often then not, they tell you the right answer.

The game has many strong points, most of them already listed. There is a definite sense of humor present, and it clearly has the Jellyvision touch to it. Unfortunately, there are only 600 questions, which often repeat after even 5 or 6 times playing the game. This hinders replay value extremely. Also, Regis constantly gives you crap, especially when you get $0. It'd be nice if you could turn off his stupid remarks. All in all, WWTBAM is a fun game for rental, but not to buy. The board game is cheaper and has more questions. Stick to it unless you're a die hard fan.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/07/00, Updated 01/13/01