Author Topic: Buzzer + FLASHGames² Exclusive Chain Reaction+StarFace Previews (Read 10775 times)

Don Howard · « **Reply #30 on:** August 01, 2006, 02:21:49 PM »

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'125832\' date=\'Jul 31 2006, 10:26 PM\']
[quote name=\'Robert Hutchinson\' post=\'125825\' date=\'Jul 31 2006, 06:30 PM\']
And yeah, except for his voice (when did that happen?)
[/quote]
Soon as he got into radio, near as I could tell. My vibe was always that he heard Jay Thomas on the radio one day and said "Him. I want to sound like HIM."
[/quote]
I used to do that with Johnny Magnus. Bud Light does strange things to a person.
As for The New New Chain Reaction, was Blake Emmons even offered an audition? Bet he'd have worn a tie.

TonicBH · « **Reply #31 on:** August 01, 2006, 03:56:08 PM »

I watched these previews, and I'll be brief: Chain Reaction's set doesn't work, the theme is too corny, the judging's a bit too lenient and the scoring is ehh. Speedchain I could pass on, personally it should be more like the "Missing Link" chains of the USA era with only one word. Would put a little more challenge on it.

Starface, I just saw a generic quizzer with celebrities and stealings of sounds from Shop 'til you Drop and Wheel of Fortune. And Danny Bonaduce ain't a bad host.

Neither of these are appointment television, but hell, it's better than Lingo.

MikeK · « **Reply #32 on:** August 01, 2006, 04:52:04 PM »

[quote name=\'Moe Train\' post=\'125871\' date=\'Aug 1 2006, 03:48 AM\']I'm one of those contestants on Chain Reaction, and saying that it's for Dummies...[/quote]
Lemme clarify my use of the phrase "Chain Reaction for Dummies".

Old school Chain Reaction, both the NBC and USA versions:
* The last letter was never given.
* Linked words connected either up or down.
* Words weren't linked as just phrases, but also through examples, characteristics, uses, etc.
* The option to play or pass.
* Rod Charlebois--always a plus!

Chain Reaction 2006 style:
* The last letter is given, meaning easy money for a lucky team.
* From what I've seen in ads and the clip, words link downward only. An example of this was in my previous post. (EDIT: I stand corrected.)
* Linking words are phrases only, none of the extra possibilities that existed in previous incarnations.
* Dylan Lane doesn't impress me as a host. Blake Emmons anybody? (Don, put your hand down now.)

I'll given the scoring system edge to the current version. The 'one point per letter' thing never sat well with me, especially when a team could come back from the jaws of defeat by getting two or three long words, especially if the points were doubled for that word.

Prior versions made you think about the direction the linked words go, how they're tied together, and there was strategy about passing or playing. Hopefully this clears everything up.

itiparanoid13 · « **Reply #33 on:** August 01, 2006, 04:56:07 PM »

You can go above or below. It has happened and will happen tonight.

Moe Train · « **Reply #34 on:** August 01, 2006, 05:47:15 PM »

Yeah, I guess you found out that it's not just downward answering. When we were on the game, I think we worked upwards the majority of the time. Just happened to be the luck of the draw. When I was studying up to play the game, I noticed that past versions had more of a calculated chain, whereas these chains are more random.

Check out an interview with Dylan here about the show.

I like the option to pass, but I have a feeling that we wouldn't have passed very much anyway (although in a few cases, we should have). No one's mentioned so far that it's men vs women in the new game. I like that concept. I know that we had previously met the team who we played, so it was great for establishing a bit of a rivalry through good chemistry. (They were pretty hot too..)

Giving an entire word won't be a very common occurrence, I think. Usually after a few letters, a team will guess it, though they do throw many curveballs in there to mess the teams up. That shouldn't be much of an issue. I know it's not a very "old school" approach, but it IS a newer version of the game which I've heard is faster paced until the final round...

Now the final round is a totally different story. Completing the other person's thoughts into an intelligible sentence is MUCH harder that you'd think. There's only one way to do well with that, and that's the chemistry between the two people who are forming the sentence. The person who was blindfolded has to really concentrate on what they are saying, and ring in as soon as they know the answer.

I'm really amped to see the shows, and to see how the others have done so far!

ITSBRY · « **Reply #35 on:** August 01, 2006, 06:52:39 PM »

[quote name=\'itiparanoid13\' post=\'125811\' date=\'Jul 31 2006, 07:18 PM\']
BuzzerBlog and FLASHGames² have teamed up with GSN: The Network for Games to offer game show fans a sneak preview of their two new shows "Chain Reaction" and "Starface"
[/quote]

My initial thoughts...

Chain Reaction
Looks like a decent effort...I didn't see any huge problems but I was just as bored during that few minutes as I was with the last version of this show. I never found this game all that compelling to begin with. It was always slow and a bit dull for my taste. The only thing that made the original worth watching was Cullen. Understandable why GSN tried this format at least...no doubt attempting to cash in on Lingo's success.

StarFace:
HOW does a show like this make it to air? I just don't understand. Show a picture and answer questions...also a snoozer. This is basically "On the Cover" without a cool set. Twenty seconds into it and it was obvious to me that this was a "let's crank out a series with as little effort as possible" show. I will say that Bonaduce seemed like a good fit though...he didn't seem at all awkward.

In summary...Horribly done? No. Something to be excited about? No way! The best word I can use to describe both is "Eh".

tvmitch · « **Reply #36 on:** August 01, 2006, 06:53:48 PM »

I *hope* that the highlight of the new CR is the bonus round. I'll watch it tonight, but I'll mainly be waiting for the bonus round. And then maybe GSN will revive Go. Maybe.

Robert Hutchinson · « **Reply #37 on:** August 01, 2006, 11:37:31 PM »

Clarification request: I think that "chains work downwards" is meaning different things for different people in this thread. We all know, I think, that players have the option of working their way up or down the chain (or both). What I think MikeK was talking about was that all of the two-word phrases seemed to be in top-to-bottom order. CHAIN SMOKE, never SMOKE CHAIN. Is that also an incorrect assumption?

Also: am I really going to be the first to mention what other beloved game show (coughpilotcough) was strongly based on completing two-word phrases one word at a time? (grins evilly)

LocalH · « **Reply #38 on:** August 02, 2006, 12:32:08 AM »

[quote name=\'Robert Hutchinson\' post=\'125970\' date=\'Aug 1 2006, 11:37 PM\']
Clarification request: I think that "chains work downwards" is meaning different things for different people in this thread. We all know, I think, that players have the option of working their way up or down the chain (or both). What I think MikeK was talking about was that all of the two-word phrases seemed to be in top-to-bottom order. CHAIN SMOKE, never SMOKE CHAIN. Is that also an incorrect assumption?
[/quote]
From what I saw tonight, that would be the case (but I didn't record it, so I can't review it). ~~Although I did see "WHISTLE STOP CAFE" on the board at one point, so at least it's not 100% two-word links (which would just be another point on a long list of demerits).~~ Scratch that, I misremembered it. Just saw a promo and realized that I was completely wrong, and that so far it does seem like two-word links. Still, my first impression is garbage, although I'll give it a few more eps before I write it off.

MikeK · « **Reply #39 on:** August 02, 2006, 01:41:31 AM »

[quote name=\'Robert Hutchinson\' post=\'125970\' date=\'Aug 1 2006, 11:37 PM\']
Clarification request: I think that "chains work downwards" is meaning different things for different people in this thread. We all know, I think, that players have the option of working their way up or down the chain (or both). What I think MikeK was talking about was that all of the two-word phrases seemed to be in top-to-bottom order. CHAIN SMOKE, never SMOKE CHAIN.[/quote]
Someone understands the point I made 24+ hours ago. It's a miracle!

Craig Karlberg · « **Reply #40 on:** August 02, 2006, 03:49:26 AM »

CR was OK. Given that you can go either up or down on each word in the chain is nice to have. The speed chains are a nice little wrinkle. I figured out a couple 7-second chains before they did. Scoring is not quite what I was expecting but it'll do. The bonus round was a neat throwback to the old days except adding a double $ after 7 & triple $ after all 10 sure was diffrent. It depends how confident the cluegivers can communicate questions to the receiver. The premiere gets a 6.5

As for Starface, I was slightly disappointed with the gameplay. See a picure, guess the celebrity, answer a few more questions based on that picture. Sure sounds like On The Cover to me. The only bright spot was Danny Bonnaduche. He was decent on his first crack as a game show host. The premiere gets a 6.

I'll periodically check in both shows from time to time but neither one stand out outside of the first week.