Author Topic: Review a home game... (Read 13332 times)

Adam Nedeff · « **Reply #30 on:** June 30, 2003, 04:20:59 PM »

Password Plus

Box cover: A-
Good use of strong reds, yellows, and blues, with an attention-grabbing slight redesign of the show logo.

Game materials: B
A terrific board design that holds three puzzles at once, then easily slides the Alphabetics letters out for that part of the game. Also it's worth noting that they've replicated the set for the puzzleboard, an easy PLUS. Heh-heh...

Playability: B+
Loses a letter because it's not totally identical to the show's format (unless you use the Tom Kennedy $500 format, in which case, you can just use both sides of the game card, I suppose).

Overall: A

clemon79 · « **Reply #31 on:** June 30, 2003, 04:23:01 PM »

[quote name=\'SimpsonGeek\' date=\'Jun 30 2003, 11:08 AM\'] Game Materials: A-
What much more do you need other than cards, a board, and survey questions? Points off for the extra spaces in Money Cards.
[/quote]
Freeze bars, perhaps?

Quote

Overall: A
To me it's Endless's best adaption so far.

I dunno about Endless. Maybe it's the rising spielfriek in me, but it seems they're so gung ho about getting these titles out, that they're not taking the time to do them WELL. The missing freeze bars and screwed-up Money Cards board are glaring mistakes, as is the single pricer in the TPIR set, and I don't think the Pyramid bits have improved since the 70's.

They would impress me more if they took some time and truly put out a neat game instead of going for the quick buck. I shudder to think of what their interpretation of $otC would look like...

JasonA1 · « **Reply #32 on:** June 30, 2003, 04:38:58 PM »

WIN LOSE OR DRAW
Milton Bradley 1987

Materials: Nice and tidy. Small board, lots of pawns, and slick cards. The included paper is also good, each sheet emblazoned with the WLOD logo (we of course play with a dry-erase board). The puzzles are all phrases/cliches - so you don't have 5-second puzzles like \"doormat.\" Use your own pencil though, you'll find better at a putt-putt course. [ A ]

Playbility: Not like the show, but very simple and allows for plenty of fun drawing and guessing. Players guess and draw to earn one of each colored pawn, then try and land on a spade to earn the \"ace in the hole\" for a win. However, when a player does earn the four colors, they cannot win as a sketcher. This is flawed in part because people see it as \"strategy\" to not draw. Of course, if you really think about it, blowing your turn as sketcher (in the board game) means the phrase moves down to the next sketcher, giving the win/pawn to your opponents. [ A - ]

Overall: Lambasted this before I actually played it, but I love it now. Light years better than Pictionary. I hate finally getting my turn to draw and I get \"door.\" All-Plays were not warmly accepted by the calm who don't like racing the others for a word. [ A - ]

Quick questions for the group, slighty off-topic: when you play a drawing game, do you have an alternative surface instead of tiny pads of paper?

And when you play Charades in a party setting, how do you do it? I recently picked up a board game called \"Sound Off\" at the thrift store and it went over well. I can elaborate if asked ;-p

-Jason

Game Show Man · « **Reply #33 on:** July 22, 2003, 02:22:53 PM »

I missed this topic, so here's my way of giving it a \"bump:\" with another review.

Who Wants to be a Millionaire
Pressman Toys, 2000

Box Cover: B
Simple, deep blue cover with the WWTBAM logo.

Materials: A
980 question cards (proportionally more for the easier questions, less for the upper tier stuff), five gold-colored plastic question card-holders, fifteen lifeline tokens, twenty PAF/ATA cards, and lots of play money (some of the coolest looking play money I've ever seen; ya just gotta love that Million Dollar Bill with the gold foil).

Playability: C+
It's a little hard to mess up such a simple format. The standard gameplay is similar to the show; it's how the Lifelines are handled that gets Playability rating marked down (assuming you don't like how they're handled; I myself like their handling of the lifelines). Each player is equipped with a card holder, three Lifeline tokens and a set of PhoneAFriend/AskTheAudience cards; one player is designated the host and uses the card holder to ask the questions, while the other players secretly choose their responses with their card holders. When a player taps either Phone a Friend or Ask the Audience, the other players (everyone for the AskTheAudience; one specific player for PhoneAFriend) then use their cards to secretly choose an answer, which may or may not be correct (the host also adds a card to the ones the other players pick; his answer must be the correct one). The possiblity of the other players purposely giving a wrong answer is the reason most folks don't like the use of the cards for the Lifelines; I myself happen to like the cards, since they add a new element of strategy to the game. Those not liking the Lifeline cards are invited to use the traditional format of the show: actually calling a friend for advice when tapping PhoneAFriend, and polling everyone in the room for AskThe Audience.

Overall: B
Whether you like the Lifeline cards or not, this game is still one of the better game show adaptations in recent years.

\"Game Show Man\" Joe Van Ginkel
gameshowman@winning.com

Dbacksfan12 · « **Reply #34 on:** July 22, 2003, 04:41:25 PM »

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Jun 30 2003, 03:23 PM\'] [quote name=\'SimpsonGeek\' date=\'Jun 30 2003, 11:08 AM\'] Game Materials: A-
What much more do you need other than cards, a board, and survey questions? Points off for the extra spaces in Money Cards.
[/quote]
Freeze bars, perhaps?

Quote

Overall: A
To me it's Endless's best adaption so far.

I dunno about Endless. Maybe it's the rising spielfriek in me, but it seems they're so gung ho about getting these titles out, that they're not taking the time to do them WELL. The missing freeze bars and screwed-up Money Cards board are glaring mistakes, as is the single pricer in the TPIR set, and I don't think the Pyramid bits have improved since the 70's.

They would impress me more if they took some time and truly put out a neat game instead of going for the quick buck. I shudder to think of what their interpretation of $otC would look like... [/quote]
Do you really really need the freeze bars though?

DjohnsonCB · « **Reply #35 on:** July 22, 2003, 04:45:42 PM »

Quote

actually calling a friend for advice when tapping PhoneAFriend

I've often wondered if anyone on the receiving end of a Phone-A-Friend call placed by someone playing the home game gets a bit steamed. Nice feature if it actually works, but I can all-too-easily picture someone treating a call like this as being two notches above a call from a telemarketer.

At least contestants on the TV show get to plan ahead and make arrangements and agreements to call whoever they know is an expert in a certain field.

DJDustman · « **Reply #36 on:** July 22, 2003, 08:15:31 PM »

The Price is Right 1986

Box Cover: B+
A Drawing of people on the wierdest price is right set ever..

Materials: A
Same old materials use for Other MB Games Except the Game is more colorful with a better design!! You gotta love the tiles!!

Playability: B+
It is fun to play with 3 or more people...But the when the showcase showdown is not there, then it is really fun. Nice Pricing games and prizes!!

Overall: A
The Better Price is Right Board Game!!

BTW: How is the New 2003 Wheel of Fortune Boardgame Like?

zachhoran · « **Reply #37 on:** July 22, 2003, 08:27:07 PM »

I think it's a fairly authentic drawing of the TPIR contestant's row/audience at the time in 1986.

alfonzos · « **Reply #38 on:** July 25, 2003, 03:38:01 PM »

Concentration a.k.a. Classic Concentration

Milton Bradley (Editions one through twelve and fourteen through twenty-five)
Pressman (Two versions, puzzles on scroll and puzzles on cards)
Endless Games (Two versions, red filtered gameboard and clear gameboard)

A faithful adaptation of the television series is all cases. To make the experience a duplication of the series one needs a gamemaster to verify a correct answer. That gamemaster should set up the gameboard so the most valuable prizes reveal the least helpful rebus pieces and vice versa.

The Milton Bradley edition puzzles were designed by Norman Blumenthal, the series producer, and the Endless Games edition puzzles were designed by Steve Ryan, the series puzzle designer.

Box lid: C , who plays the box anyway?
Materials: Milton Bradley: A, Pressman: B, no prize racks, Endless Games: A- everything is so tiny
Playability: B, it takes a long time to set up between games.

SimpsonGeek · « **Reply #39 on:** August 15, 2003, 11:04:28 PM »

Pyramid
(Endless Games) 2003

Box Cover: B+
Different than the first cover planned, now it's a much bigger head shot of Donnie.

Game Materials: A
A pyramid that looks like the show, plenty of rounds, and the score pads on the board are fastened tighter.

Playability: A
A big improvement over the first Pyramid game done by EG, now you can alternate giving clues during the first round because the answers are covered by red print.

Overall: A
A big improvement over the first Pyramid offering by Endless. They fixed everything that they had wrong with the 1st

Dbacksfan12 · « **Reply #40 on:** August 15, 2003, 11:40:49 PM »

[quote name=\'zachhoran\' date=\'Jul 22 2003, 07:27 PM\'] I think it's a fairly authentic drawing of the TPIR contestant's row/audience at the time in 1986. [/quote]
Yeah; that was around the time of the syndie version...and they had those bronze-colored bars that one year...