Classic Concentration

Review by Eric43

"I'm concentrating real hard on this classic DOS game"

Nowadays, in the 21st century, all new game shows boast sleek sets, tense music, flashy lights, and--most of all, BIG money. Try Millionaire, Greed, Deal or No Deal, 1 vs. 100 (man this show sucks), etc. Big ratings are all the rage at families watch the prime-time shows, expecting someone to go for it all and win life-changing sums of money under big pressure...

Now go back 20 or 30 years. Back when hosts wore goofy wigs, had pearly white teeth, spoke in deep, cheery voices, and had those tiny little microphones the size of a pencil. Back when the big prizes were vacation packages or automobiles. Back when everyone took chances and you didn't have to know an encyclopedia's amount of knowledge to win the big prizes. Back when game shows were just colorful and entertaining and you didn't worry about how much money you'd lose to taxes. Yeah, I'm talking about games shows like The Price is Right, Wheel of Fortune, Family Feud, Match Game, $100,000 Pyramid, and Classic Concentration. Man, those shows were great. And, like I said, Classic Concentration is an old DOS game that lets you bring the show home on your PC. Sweet, let's check it out.

In case you've never heard of Classic Concentration, here are the rules. Two players look at a six-by-five board with thirty numbered tiles. And under those tiles are prizes in pairs. It's just like a game of memory as two players take turns picking tiles. If they match up a prize, that prize is added to their list, the tiles are removed from play, and they are allowed to pick two more tiles again. There's also a few Wild tiles out there, and picking one will automatically give you the other prize you choose in your turn. The prizes in this game consist of jewelry, computers, furniture, vacations, sets of kitchen knives, watches, and whatnot.

It's not just a prize-grabbing game. Under the tiles lies a rebus--a set of pictures that represent a phrase (for example, a picture of an eye + a guy screaming = "Ice Cream"). As prizes are won, the tiles are removed and rebus becomes more visible. After a player gets a match, he can then attempt to solve the rebus. If he gets it right, then he "wins" the main round and keeps the prizes he picked out. However, if he gets it wrong, play continues as normal until no tiles are left; then the contestants each get one last ditch attempt to solve the rebus. Get it wrong and no one wins. However, odds are someone's going to get that rebus right most games.

The contestant who wins the first round gets to play the bonus round. This is where we play to win a shiny, new $8,000 automobile to take home to our families. The contestant has 35 seconds to match up only fifteen tiles. Under the tiles are names of cars like "Lebaron," "Fiero," and "Mustang," but to try to confuse the player, there's the odd man out tile that doesn't have a match. When one tile is left, the player wins that car. Game over, you're winner, etc. Unfortunately, this game is like shooting fish in a barrel (on the DOS version anyway)--you can select two tiles in less than half a second, and that's too easy. I've never lost at it. Once.

Now, let's discuss how the DOS game works out. First of all, the graphics are beautiful...for a DOS game. Everything is colored in magenta, cyan, gray, or black. The "set" consists of a few booths with the item list in the background. You can choose from four men or women characters, and they all gesticulate in just a few frames of animation. The most impressive piece of art would be the game board; it's a massive mixture of stale, generic tiles, but the rebus pictures are pretty-well drawn in most cases. Yeah, there has been a few rebuses where you have no idea what the heck you're looking at, but usually that's not the case. The intro logo is also pretty well drawn too.

You can play single-player against the computer or with a friend. You'll be using the good old keyboard and space bar combo to select tiles, as well as Y and N to answer yes or no questions (boy that's old DOS stuff). Against the computer, it's usually a joke as he frequently suffers from memory lapses, but if you screw up near the end of the game, then watch out; he sporadically solves the rebuses, and you're screwed. It's better if you have a friend around. It makes this game more entertaining.

Speaking of rebuses, you have to type the exact words to the puzzle. No typos or synonyms allowed. Otherwise, you'll be wrong every time. I think this kind of stinks as you'll occasionally type in the CORRECT answer, save one letter, and you'll lose. It's frustrating, but hey, it happens. Also, there's quite a few rebuses in the game (don't have an exact number), but there's a possibility you'll run into a repeat rebus, and like in PC games such as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, repeats just make the game less interesting and whatnot.

One last thing is that you can "save" your character's progress by winning multiple games in a row. You and your prize worth are added to a leaderboard so you can boast at how good you are at beating this game. While this sounds great, it's a crock that once you lose a game, you lose all your records. This happens against the cheap AI and their rebus-solving magic. Repeat champions are a sad thing in the past, and Classic Concentration makes this more painful. Go watch Jeopardy! or something like that.

Lastly would be the sound effects. Like most old DOS games, the sound from the hard drive as opposed to your speakers. The music consists of "dih-dih-dih-duh" every time something happens, like you win a prize or if you're starting a new game. Very shallow stuff, but it somewhat resembles the game show, so that's nice.

Anyway, this game is pretty fun, but it's just a memory game with a little rebus twist to it. If you like the game show you'll think this is fun. But it's really a short, repetitive game that loses its charm fairly quickly. I suggest that you get it and check it out though, just to see the goofy red-head guy with the baseball cap.

Presentation: 6/10 -- Standard DOS fare. Pretty cool intro screen with the curvy Classic Concentration logo.
Gameplay: 6/10 -- Stays loyal to the real-life game show. It's really a bland game of memory that gets old pretty quickly.
Graphics: 6/10 -- Ugh, four colors, but the game environments and characters look pretty cool for looking like junk.
Sound: 7/10 -- I actually like the beeps and boops. They resemble music, unlike most other DOS games. Still, they're beeps and boops.
Replay Value: 5/10 -- Memory game, rebus solving, really quick and easy bonus round. Getting big bucks in the Champions list is fun as is playing with a friend, but that's all you'll be doing in this absurdly simple game.