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Author Topic: Chain Reaction and StarFace Reviews  (Read 5342 times)

itiparanoid13

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Chain Reaction and StarFace Reviews
« on: July 24, 2006, 11:10:24 AM »
Blogger's not working, so I'll just post my reviews of Chain Reaction and StarFace here (I got the DVDs today)

Chain Reaction: Eh is the best word I can describe it with.  It does nothing terribly wrong, but not anything great.  Basic rule description is that there's a 7 word chain, the first and last word is given.  You just have to choose a letter above or below to see one and take a guess.  They will give you the last letter.  If you're wrong, control passes to the other team.  $100 a word in round one.  $200 in round 2.  $300 in round 3.  Whoever solves the final word on the Chain gets to play a Speed Chain worth the amount of a word in that round.  A speedchain is a 4 word chain, with the first and last given and a one letter give for the middle two.  You have 7 seconds to think and then you must answer.

Round 4 sees people betting up to $500 and at least $100 on each word.  Right and you get the money.  Wrong and you lose it.  Most money moves to the bonus round.  There, you have to basically play Whose Line's "3 Headed Broadway Star" making clues one word at a time.  You hit a bell when you think you've said enough, and the blindfolded player must guess.  0-6 gives you nothing extra.  7-9 right gives you double your money.  10 right triples.  No returning champs.  They say you can win $25,000, but I'd love to see how.  I've worked it out to $18,300 unless I'm missing something.

I've already said my major issues with the show.  The set looks great for something like 2 Minute Drill.  For a light word game where the average win is $2500 to $6,000, it doesn't fit.  I finally got to hear the theme music, and it's not that great either.  Imagine the main Lingo bed without the main part of the theme (or commercial cues) going, and repeat that over and over and over.  The intro also has lyrics to it.  Also, the graphics are a bit, well, lame.  The entire theme is a flipclock.  However, the gameplay is what matters.  I can't help but feel that this game slow as hell.  It's probably because of the contestants, but it just drags out forever.  It amazed me that they edited 3 hours to 21 minutes and it came off half decent, but Dylan still really didn't.  The best way I can describe him is that he looks at the contestants, and then quickly turns to the camera and teleprompter as he talks to someone.  There were lots of opportunities for humor, but he just missed out on everything.  He's also phoning in a lot of emotion.  I don't expect him to start crying when someone loses, but when you have to read "Awww, I'm sorry" right off a teleprompter without looking anywhere else, it's not good.  Hopefully it'll get better beyond this episode, because from what I've seen now, it's not living up to all it could be.  As a side note, I found it funny that they gave me biographies for Dylan Lane and Michael Davies.  Dylan's is about a half a page, and Michael's is 2 full pages.


StarFace: StarFace, on the other hand, was terrific.  The gameplay is pretty basic.  A celebrity is put up on one of the screens, and there are questions about the celebrity.  Each right answer is 50 points in round one, and they have quite a few pictures they go through.  Round 2 doubles the points.  Round 3 makes contestants wear masks of who that day's celebrity is and answer questions and themselves at 200 a piece.  Whoever has the most right answers goes to the bonus, where they have to identify which person in a picture the clue is talking about.  There are 2 choices.  If they get 10 right, they get a trip.  There is lots of variety with different picture segments like "Hot Corner", "Below the Beltway", "Mug Shot", "15 Minutes of Fame", and more.  The show is not regulated to just TV, movie, and music people.  They also had some political questions.  

I was really surprised with Danny Bonaduce.  He is terrific as host.  He seemed a bit stiff during the first 5 minutes on the premiere episode, but after that, he was just fine.  To put it bluntly, he blew circles around Dylan Lane.  The show's pace is quick also.  There is barely any time without a question coming up one after another, besides the contestant interviews.  I talked about the Chain Reaction theme and graphics, so I'll mention StarFace's.  The theme is really nice, sort of reminds me of Balderdash.  Not much to the graphics, but it gets the point across much like Chain Reaction.  To me, this show was a much better "On The Cover" and perfectly fits in with the recent explosion of shows making fun of pop culture like The Soup.  It's in my honest opinion that StarFace is MUCH better than Chain Reaction and that it should last longer, but you'll have to judge for yourself next Tuesday at 9PM ET (Chain Reaction) and 9:30PM ET (StarFace).

Edit: I just had to include the lyrics to the Chain Reaction theme.
"It starts with "word".  Guess a G underneath. It's the word "game" and you win.  The word "game" starts a chain.  Pick a letter.  Take a guess.  Make a chain.  Win some cash.  It's guys against girls right now on Chain Reaction"
« Last Edit: July 24, 2006, 10:02:41 PM by itiparanoid13 »

Robert Hutchinson

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Chain Reaction and StarFace Reviews
« Reply #1 on: July 24, 2006, 09:33:34 PM »
[quote name=\'itiparanoid13\' post=\'124936\' date=\'Jul 24 2006, 11:10 AM\']Edit: I just had to include the lyrics to the Chain Reaction theme.
"It starts with word.  Guess a G underneath. It's the word game and you win.  The word game starts a chain.  Pick a letter.  Take a guess.  Make a chain.  Win some cash.  It's guys against girls right now on Chain Reaction"[/quote]
(blink)

(blink blink blink blink)

(eyes fall out)
Visit my CB radio at www.twitter.com/ertchin

Hastin

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Chain Reaction and StarFace Reviews
« Reply #2 on: July 24, 2006, 11:44:04 PM »
What is that? Lyrics to a children's show? Sure the hell doesn't sound like a game show to me.
-Hastin :)

ilb4ever2000

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Chain Reaction and StarFace Reviews
« Reply #3 on: July 25, 2006, 12:28:07 AM »
[quote name=\'Robert Hutchinson\' post=\'125029\' date=\'Jul 24 2006, 09:33 PM\'](blink)

(blink blink blink blink)

(eyes fall out)[/quote]

And when you hear it, your ears will fall off.

PYLW

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Chain Reaction and StarFace Reviews
« Reply #4 on: July 25, 2006, 12:55:59 AM »
Wow, I remember hearing the last part of the lyrics by Dylan, but during a soundless intro. I thought it was going to be like that, not some stupid All-Star Blitz song...

uncamark

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Chain Reaction and StarFace Reviews
« Reply #5 on: July 25, 2006, 05:36:33 PM »
[quote name=\'itiparanoid13\' post=\'124936\' date=\'Jul 24 2006, 10:10 AM\']
Edit: I just had to include the lyrics to the Chain Reaction theme.
"It starts with "word".  Guess a G underneath. It's the word "game" and you win.  The word "game" starts a chain.  Pick a letter.  Take a guess.  Make a chain.  Win some cash.  It's guys against girls right now on Chain Reaction"
[/quote]

There's some British show that has a theme with very similar lyrics (that are supposed to explain the premise).  "Lucky Ladders," someone?

Robert Hutchinson

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Chain Reaction and StarFace Reviews
« Reply #6 on: July 25, 2006, 07:01:58 PM »
I see that some quotation marks make some of the lyrics make SLIGHTLY more sense. I will amend my previous reply: only one of my eyes fell out.
Visit my CB radio at www.twitter.com/ertchin

Jeremy Nelson

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Chain Reaction and StarFace Reviews
« Reply #7 on: July 25, 2006, 09:07:17 PM »
[quote name=\'itiparanoid13\' post=\'124936\' date=\'Jul 24 2006, 10:10 AM\']
Edit: I just had to include the lyrics to the Chain Reaction theme.
"It starts with "word".  Guess a G underneath. It's the word "game" and you win.  The word "game" starts a chain.  Pick a letter.  Take a guess.  Make a chain.  Win some cash.  It's guys against girls right now on Chain Reaction"
[/quote]
[quote name=\'uncamark\' post=\'125136\' date=\'Jul 25 2006, 04:36 PM\']
There's some British show that has a theme with very similar lyrics (that are supposed to explain the premise).  "Lucky Ladders," someone?
[/quote]
Take a word!
Change a letter!
Do it again!
Now you've got a chain!
That's how you play-ay-ay Chain Letters!
Chain Letters!

As far as I know, Lucky Ladders didn't have lyrics.
« Last Edit: July 25, 2006, 09:09:31 PM by rollercoaster87 »
Fact To Make You Feel Old: Just about every contestant who appears in a Price is Right Teen Week episode from here on out has only known a world where Drew Carey has been the host.

Brig Bother

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Chain Reaction and StarFace Reviews
« Reply #8 on: July 26, 2006, 03:56:21 AM »
[quote name=\'rollercoaster87\' post=\'125163\' date=\'Jul 26 2006, 02:07 AM\']
[quote name=\'itiparanoid13\' post=\'124936\' date=\'Jul 24 2006, 10:10 AM\']
Edit: I just had to include the lyrics to the Chain Reaction theme.
"It starts with "word".  Guess a G underneath. It's the word "game" and you win.  The word "game" starts a chain.  Pick a letter.  Take a guess.  Make a chain.  Win some cash.  It's guys against girls right now on Chain Reaction"
[/quote]
[quote name=\'uncamark\' post=\'125136\' date=\'Jul 25 2006, 04:36 PM\']
There's some British show that has a theme with very similar lyrics (that are supposed to explain the premise).  "Lucky Ladders," someone?
[/quote]
Take a word!
Change a letter!
Do it again!
Now you've got a chain!
That's how you play-ay-ay Chain Letters!
Chain Letters!

As far as I know, Lucky Ladders didn't have lyrics.
[/quote]

Yep, that's precisely the one I'm thinking of.

Although Give Us A Clue had fab lyrics as well.

I can't for the life of me work out any sort of tune Chain Reaction would go with.