There’s something that has captivated audiences for years on television – much like the gladiator battles in ancient Rome or jousting in medieval times, seeing a contestant win or lose is very exciting. Of course, we don’t often do things to the death anymore – even with fights in the UFC we have referees that stop a fight from becoming deadly. But going all the way back to the 1940s, we began to watch game shows – the first being a spelling bee. I saw plenty of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy as a child, and I’ve always enjoyed utilizing my useless knowledge of trivia, but I’m terrified of being in front of people. Cue the video game equivalent of a trivia game show.
I’ve mentioned this before, but the Buzz! series started back in 2007 on the PS2, and while it wasn’t the first trivia video game to exist, it was potentially the biggest original IP in the genre. With its peripheral buzzers creating a sense of an actual game show environment, it was a welcome addition to the game space. Fast-forward a decade and we get It’s Quiz Time, a trivia game show with a computer host and well over 25k questions to be answered.
Starting up the game, you have a few options to choose from. You can play by yourself, which entails answering 30 random questions. You’ll choose a specialty topic at the beginning, and for every one of those questions you’re asked, you get extra points awarded. Of course, if you answer wrong, you lose more points. In this mode, you’re penalized for each question you get wrong, and the longer you take to answer the question, the less points you will earn or lose. If you’re playing by yourself, don’t worry, there’s a leaderboard of people for you to compete with. But quite honestly, the game is meant to be played with others.
Each match can hold up to 8 people locally, but if you choose to do a live show, you can compete against up to 10,000 other contestants. Naturally, this is best utilized by the likes of streamers, be it on YouTube, Twitch, or Mixer. All you need to play (other than a copy of the game) is a smart phone with the companion app, and you’ve got your “buzzer” so to speak. Much like the Jackbox Party Packs, you’ll be answering all the questions through this, so make sure you’ve got a good charge. If your phone dies, the game is nice enough to let your friends choose to wait, but if it’s just the two of you, saying no will end the game – no forfeiting allowed here.
There are quite a few modes that change up how you’d play with the knowledge, including guesstimating dates or numbers pertaining to population, describing a topic and trying to match all the descriptors, or deciding if your friend will answer a trivia question right or not, and plenty more. In addition to a normal match that is randomly decided by Salli, you can create your own custom matches with however many modes you want to play, and choose which modes to play in particular if you don’t like certain ones. There’s also an event quiz which isn’t yet live.
With every game show comes a host, and the host will often times make or break that show. Family Feud has likely never seen the number of viewers it does currently with Steve Harvey, and when you think of The Price is Right, do you really think of Drew, or do you think of Bob? There’s a lot of importance behind the voice of the show, and Salli is probably the weakest part of this game. With her robotic voice that seems to be used merely for pronouncing names, she feels very bland. Despite the fact that she said she’d never pronounce my name incorrectly after saying it like anyone would, she then said it in a way that I can only imagine a computer would think to say it. Her animations also don’t do her any favors, as they were often borderline creepy and looping.
Salli aside, It’s Quiz Time is a party game anyone can get behind. With its questions based on your birthdate (optional, but makes the questions far more relevant), there’s trivia here everyone can have a fair shake at. Move out of the way Trivial Pursuit, there’s a new trivia game in town.
8 out of 10
Pros
- Age Based Content
- So. Many. Questions.
- Different Modes for Trivia
Cons
- Salli
- Occasional Lag
It’s Quiz Time was developed by Snap Finger Click and published by Vision Games Publishing Ltd. It was released on PS4 November 28th, 2017, PC November 30th, 2017, and XB1 in the future for $19.99. The game was provided to us for review on PS4. For more on It’s Quiz Time, visit the developer’s official site.
Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.
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