It's no secret that I'm a big fan of trivia. I've been watching Jeopardy every night for well over a decade now. I'm always up for a game of Trivial Pursuit. My coworkers and I spend our lunch breaks every day on the website Random Trivia Generator. I'm just a big fan of knowing stuff, and learning stuff. And as such, I can't help but want to play trivia related video games. Unfortunately, there are so few that I'd consider great.
In 2020, Microids released a new version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? for Xbox One. Obviously, there's been lots of video game takes on this popular game show over the years. Heck, I can remember playing one on the original Playstation way back in the day. But more importantly, I remember watching the original run of the show in the late 90s and early 2000s. I'll tell you what, it's hard to think of the gameshow without thinking of Regis. But alas, he's nowhere to be found in this new game. But how would I rate the game on its own merits? Well, it's a mixed bag. The good news is that it excels where it really matters. The questions are good, and the flow feels legit. Like, the first several questions are super easy, and lull you into a sense of calm. Then things pick up from there accordingly. It works well. Most importantly, the question pool is deep. There's apparently two thousand or so questions for each region (you can actually choose to play the game in America or England, amongst others), so things stay fresh. In the course of hours, I never saw a repeat question. This is really big, as I've seen other similar games – such as the Xbox One version of Jeopardy – mess this up. On top of all that, you can use in-game currency to unlock extra "expert" questions from various categories ranging form World Food to Manga and Superheroes. If nothing else, this gives you a reason to keep plugging away, and even to walk away from the game with money banked instead of swinging wildly for the million even when you're not confident. The overall presentation is fine with its recreation of the television set and its iconic music. However the voice acting is awful. I mean, it often sounds like the lines are being read by a robot at the bottom of a well. Add to that the short list of recorded lines. There's eight avatars to choose from I believe, and each has only a handful of lines. You're going to hear some repetitive robotic sentences over and over again. Julie is the default, so I've just rolled with her. She's mechanical and apparently her interest is "social," whatever that means. But the generic host of the game is the worst, and you will absolutely grow to hate being asked if it's your final answer after every single question. But, games like these are played for their trivia, and the trivia is good. I'll give it that. It's a perfectly serviceable trivia game as far as the questions are concerned. But as a video game experience, it leaves a fair amount to be desired. Which sadly is sort of par for the course when it comes to this genre.
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There's a scene in High Fidelity I've always loved. Rob's being interviewed, and the journalist asks him what his favorite album is and he's just confused at the question. Like, favorite album for the club? For chilling out? What? It's too vague a question. When you're a casual fan of music, I guess you can easily have a favorite album. When you're obsessed, how do you even answer that?
I guess I've always felt the same way about games. Invariably, when people in my life (relatives, co-workers, etc) find out I'm a gamer they ask my favorite game. But like... how do you even answer that? My favorite game for relaxing? Or for co-op? Or like, my favorite game as a kid, or now? But I came to a conclusion this week. If I really distill that question into its simplest form - my favorite game of all time. The game I've loved the longest, and played the longest, in the most versions. The game that I'd be cool with taking to that imaginary desert island? The game that could hold up to the most replays without getting old? Dudes, my favorite game of all time must be Tetris. Since receiving Tetris as a pack-in with my Game Boy in 1989, I've played so many variations that I can't even remember them all. NES, DOS, Super Nintendo, Game Boy Color, Gamecube, Dreamcast, DS, and I'm certain I'm leaving things out. Tetris never gets old to me. In 2019 we saw the release of Tetris 99 - a game that I called the game I never knew I needed. It went on to be my most played game of the year. So did I really need another version of Tetris when Tetris Effect was released? Maybe not. But I've been so into streaming Xbox games to my Surface Go that I can't seem to resist picking up new Xbox games anymore. I mean, this would be more Tetris, but on a 10" screen instead of the Switch's - what? 5" screen? - while listening to the TV. So yeah, when it dropped on sale for $25 instead of $40, it was a no brainer. Tetris Effect was developed by Tetsuya Mizuguchi. If you don't know, this is the dude that made Rez. And Child Of Eden. And Lumines. That last one is really important to me. Lumines is a pretty huge puzzle game to me. One of the few that I'd put up there in the top tier. Like, nothing tops Tetris. But Lumines and Puzzle Fighter, those games come damn close. But Tetris Effect is amazing. I say this as someone who's put like 200 hours into Tetris Effect in the past couple years. The thing about Tetris Effect is that it's basic Tetris at its core, but it's all about the experience and about the audio and visual stimulants. You've got crazy zen-like visuals going on like outer space stuff and underwater stuff, and then you've got pulsing trance music and it's all just like an insane trip. If you've played Rez or Lumines, you already know. Beyond that you've got a hugely fully featured array of options. There's a single player campaign "Journey Mode," in three different difficulties. I knocked out all three in a couple nights - no bragging. Then you've got various single player challenges like the standard Marathon or Chill Mode or much, much crazier challenges. Then there's some intense multiplayer modes to delve into. Maybe most importantly, there's a dearth of record-keeping. And I'm a guy who loves stats. I keep spreadsheet on everything. I love data. So here we are. I'm telling you that I'm biased. I love Tetris. It's my favorite game. And I've played a lot of these games. Heck, in this generation alone I've picked up Puyo Puyo Tetris, Tetris 99 and now this. And y'know what? This is the most fully featured version I've ever played. It's like the ultimate Tetris... until the next one comes out? Who knows! But I'm sure I'll check out the next one and sink way too many hours into it too. |
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