Looks and sounds good; many questions in database; some customizable rules
No online component; no multimedia such as photos, videos or sound bytes; some host remarks repeat too often
Full Review
by admin (04/07/2008)Movie buffs willing to put their mouse where their mouth is can do so in Trivial Pursuit Silver Screen Edition, a downloadable casual game that brings the popular board game into the 21st century.
This clever game for one to four players (on the same computer) does a good job capturing the look and feel of the tabletop version, while also adding some fun sound effects, music, animation, and more.
In case you've been living under a dusty Monopoly board, Trivial Pursuit is a wildly popular trivia game that tasks players to roll a die, move a "pie" game piece around the board and then answer a multiple choice question from a card, read by someone else. If players correctly answer a question when on one of six special spots on the board, they receive a colored wedge that fits into their game piece. The winner is the one who first fills up their pie with all the wedges, and also answers a final question after landing on the center "hub" spot on the board.
As the name suggests, the Silver Screen Edition devotes all questions to the film industry, with categories as follows: Actors, Actresses, Directors, Plot Points, Quotes and Names and Wild Card (randomly picks one of the categories).
A sample question is: "What does Bruce Willis play in Pulp Fiction"? Possible answers are a bartender, boxer, hit man or bank robber? (Correct answer is boxer!). Here's another: What's Richard Gere's middle name? Bulgari, Gucci, Tiffany or Cartier? Answer is Tiffany (who knew?!). Gamers have 15 seconds to click on the desired answer or you lose your turn.
This computer version plays much like its cardboard and plastic counterpart - but with a few twists. For one, players can engage in a solo match against the game's A.I. (artificial intelligence), a popcorn box named Bucky Pop who munches on its own popcorn, teasingly sticks his tongue out at you when he gets a question right or complains when you're beating him. As an interesting addition, gamers have a chance to "steal" an answer from Bucky by quickly and correctly guessing one of the four multiple choice questions, which prevents him from picking that particular answer. If you get it right, it's your turn to roll the die (he doesn't like that very much!).
While there's no head-to-head component for players who want to compete in an online game against friends or family, two to four players can partake in a "hotspot" mode on the same computer as if they were playing the board game together.
For both the solo and multiplayer games, your pie piece happily dances along the board, wedges jump into the pie and players are treated to a Hollywood-style fanfare ending if they win the game (and can post their progress to a High Score board). The male host is amusing and keeps his eye on what's happening; he may utter a comment like "Hey, that's three thwarts in a row!" if you continuously steal answers from your opponent, or he'll say something like "Here's a chance for your first wedge" after landing on the special spot on the board.
If you don't have time for a long game, players can choose how many wedges need to be in the pie game piece before one wins (as low as two wedges for quick matches). You can also choose whether or not an exact roll is required to land on the hub for the final question (a common beef in the tabletop version!). You can also choose to play a game where a wedge is earned after correctly answering any question.
In total, the game offers three levels of difficulty (Beginner, Medium, Movie Buff), roughly 4,300 questions and more than 10,000 answers.
Trivial Pursuit Silver Screen Edition is a perfect pick for film aficionados, trivia fans or board game lovers in search of an easy-to-pick-up-and-play digital diversion. Chances are you already know the rules, plus it looks and feels familiar, but the savvy folks at iWin go one step further with some customization, music, sound effects and humor.
