by Barry Cantin 9/27/97
BCantin@aol.com

Quiz Wiz Cyber Trivia - $19.99, released September 1997.

One of the first three titles for the Game.com (including the pack-in, "Lights Out") is a cart-version of the age-old Quiz Wiz. Started in the early 1980's by Coleco, the Quiz Wiz was a handheld unit into which you could plug cartridge books with thousands of questions. You'd select a question from the book, push the appropriate button on the console to answer it, and the Quiz Wiz unit would then act as "referee" - telling you whether or not you got it right. There were well over 25 books available for the series. Tiger Electronics has long since obtained the rights to this series, and has put five categories into a game.com cartridge. The five categories are: Sports, Famous People, Film and TV, Potpourri, and General Knowledge. A pretty decent mix, and not too far off from the six original Trivial Pursuit categories. You select one of these, and an option screen allows you to include a timer (or none), and the number of questions you want to answer (5, 10, 15, 20, or 30). Then the quiz begins.

The "Wise Guy" introduces you to the game, and when you get a question correct, you are rewarded with a little animation. When you get it wrong, you are rewarded with a little animation. Personally, after a few of these I got tired of them and there is an option in the options screen that allows you to turn this off. I have noticed that sometimes the options you choose will be saved, sometimes not. Always best to check first.

I noticed a few things about the question selection right away. Occasionally, a group of questions (say, in Potpourri) will be very related to one another. For example, a series of five or six soap opera questions came up in a row, and some were VERY specific ("Which soap revolutionized the industry in the 1970's with its Hollywood look?"). I'd like to see the questions mixed up a LOT more here. Another problem I have with it is that after playing it six or seven times, the same questions started to cycle. Not totally unexpected, since they're chosen at random, but after having played the game for just a few hours over the last week, I no longer see a new question. A *major* disappointment for me.

One thing that makes the game.com so attractive to me, besides the touch screen, is the unit's ability to keep high scores. I think this was a WONDERFUL idea, and kept playing and playing until I got a perfect 30 by the Quiz Wiz entry. Unfortunately for me, after I did that, there wasn't much point in playing since I've seen pretty much all the questions in all the categories.

The game's sound effects weren't really that necessary, a basic "RIGHT!" or "WRONG!" sufficed. The animations have a bit more sound as well, but after a few of those - you may want to turn them off too.

The game interface was very nice - you're given the question, and four choices to answer: A, B, C, or D. Select your answer with the stylus, and see if you're right! I found it to be fast, responsive, and efficient. You can also use the joypad and A/B buttons to control the game, but I prefer the stylus and touch screen.

Here's the bottom line. The game is a lot of fun if you like quiz games, and suits the game.com nicely with the touch screen. Unfortunately, it won't last too long as you'll probably learn the answers to all the questions on the cart in a few weeks of moderate play (you can set the "answers" option to OFF if you don't want the answer displayed, this may prolong the fun a bit).

I still enjoyed it for a period there...

Rating:

Scale:
1: POOR
5: GREAT!!!

Graphics: 2.0
Sound: 2.0
Gameplay: 3.5
Repeatability: 1.5
Value ($19.99) 2.5
Overall: 2.3

It's a decent cart but will get old rather quickly. Still, the $20 price point doesn't make it that bad a purchase. If you like quiz games, give it a shot.