Video Game Review: “Jeopardy” on the Playstation Network

Game Publisher: Sony
Platform: PS3’s Playstation Network
Release Date: September 11, 2008

I’m not a major game show fan. Most of the people in my house are. My son is a game show fanatic. In fact, one of his favorite television stations is Game Show Network. If he could play game shows on the computer or on video games every waking moment, he would. I just don’t really like game shows all that much. The only ones I can stand to watch are test your knowledge games. I’ll watch Jeopardy and the Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader. I’m not so fanatical about these shows that I can’t miss them, but I do enjoy playing along with them when they are on.

On a side note, as a kid, I was in love with the Match Game. It was the craziest, kookiest game and I loved to watch reruns from the 1970s. It had to be the outlandish nature of the celebrities that participated on the show, that made it so fun to watch. That being said, it’s insanely clear to me that I prefer the games where I can actively participate in the game, by answering questions and gauging how I’d do if I were competing against the contestants. Just watching people do things that I can’t participate in is not much fun. I’m pretty sure that’s why I never dug The Price is Right.

When I found out about the Playstation Network offering Jeopardy for a downloadable purchase, I knew I had to get this game. Not only would I enjoy it, but the rest of the family would go ga-ga during time spent together. I knew that Jeopardy would be a crowd-pleaser in the Evans household. That’s part of why I’m writing this review, right now. I had the chance to download and play several games of Jeopardy, both online and off.

For the most part, Jeopardy is exactly like you’d expect. You get to play the part of the contestant on Jeopardy and to answer questions. You get to play two rounds and answer daily doubles if you select them. You get to play final Jeopardy. It’s all there. You can play in a single player mode, against family and friends locally or online against other players. Of course here are some disappointing aspects, that make this game a little less enjoyable than it could have been. Had these issues not been a part of the game. I’ll get into what’s wrong with the game a little later in this review.

Game Play:
What’s there to say about game play? It’s Jeopardy. You get to use your own customizable character to take on others in a variety of settings (locally – single and multi-player and online vs. other players). You can play friends online or complete strangers. No matter how you play, the gameplay is identical. In single player, local games, you get to choose the first category. In online games and multi-player local games, you might or might not get to choose a category first. You have so much time to read a question and then you press a button to answer the question. All of your answers are selected, multiple choice, from a list of four questions.

The questions are ones you’d expect (and may have seen before) when watching Jeopardy on television. There are questions for every subject you studied in school (i.e. Science, Health, World History), Potpourri, Pop Culture, Politics, and a plethoric selection of other topics. You make money from questions you get right and lose money from questions you miss. While there are over 2,500 questions, one downside (or upside if you want to make a lot of money) is that when you cancel a game in the middle, you have to restart that exact same game over the next time you play, locally. The categories and questions also repeat from online to offline formats. This can be an advantage for a player who has gone through all of the clues.

There really isn’t much more to this game. If you’ve seen Jeopardy on television then you’ll know exactly how to play this game. If you like Jeopardy, on television, you’ll love it when you’re actually in the driver’s seat, playing your own game of Jeopardy. I played on my own and with the family, which is pretty cool to play as a single player, because you’re more likely to get the answers to the questions right with so many opinions and knowledge levels being represented. Of course, the game does get old after awhile, so I don’t recommend having 12-hour Jeopardy playing marathons. In fact, this game is best played in short bursts with kith and kin.

Enjoyment/Fun Factor:

Features:
One of the most noticeable features of Jeopardy for the Playstation Network, is the custom Avatar option. I wish this was more customizable. You get to choose from a few different guys or girls, with different skintones, choose their hair color, make a few, minor modifications and you really can’t customize much more than that. You can change your avatar’s name to your own and then you might just have to play in a game versus the customized avatars your family members create. Ashtyn found this bothersome, when the AI took over my Dominick avatar, who was whooping her butt! I would rather the AI not have access to character-created avatars, but that’s just my personal choice.

The second feature is the abundance of questions. There are over 2500 different questions covering a variety of topics. The downside, as I mentioned previously, is that categories and questions can repeat from single player mode to online play. In just my first game against total strangers, I owned at least two categories, because I’d already had the same questions in single player mode. Still, 2500 questions means that it will take quite a while to get through all of the questions and complete the entire game. Even then, who would want to stop playing?

There aren’t really any features I haven’t mentioned previously. There are single player and multiplayer modes. You can play friends or strangers in multi-player online modes. You can play your family and friends locally, as well. The game was released in its single player mode in September of 2008. Today, you can usually log on and find someone to play with online in less than five minutes. I played multiple games and each took less than a minute to find players to play against.

I feel like I’m repeating myself. This game isn’t rocket science. If you like Jeopardy, you’ll love this game. It’s that simple!

Replayability:

Controls:
While the controls are easy to use, you primarily use the X, O, triangle and square buttons for answering questions, selecting categories, etc. However, you have to read the question quickly and click the button to answer as fast as you can, or you might not get the chance to answer, at all. In single player, local games, if the AI is set to be incredibly smart, you’ll fight the “computerized” contestants to answer anything. You can turn this down a bit, so you have a better chance of answering. However, if you’re playing someone else online, be prepared to fight them for the right to answer any question. The controls could be a little bit smoother, but actually figuring out what button to press is as easy as pie.

Ease of Use:

Visual Quality:
The visual quality for Jeopardy is nice, but it isn’t spectacular. This isn’t the kind of game you’d expect to have a stunning visual quality. Considering I’ve played Jeopardy on various platforms, including the earliest computer Jeopardy games, with primitive graphics, way back in the 1990s, I can honestly say general graphic design has come a long way. This looks realistic, with a shiny, playing board, almost identical to what you’d see on the television show.

Your avatar, which you can choose and customize to your liking, has a human cartoon appeal, but it isn’t unpleasing. While the game looks good and the visual quality won’t affect gameplay, it isn’t so beautiful that players will be boasting about it. The color palette used is vibrant, contrast is fairly consistent and the colors are somewhat saturated.

Visual:

Audio Quality:
The audio comes through strongly, but the excessively played Jeopardy theme and boop-boop sounds as the board loads during each round, get a bit annoying by the third or fourth game you play. There is the option to turn the sound off. I recommend you do this, or mute your television. When the sound is playing, it is crisp and clear with good use of the speakers. You’ll have the option to use your headset during the multiplayer, online games, so you might not want to turn your television sound off, completely.

Audio:

Bottom Line:
If you like game shows and/or are a fan of Jeopardy, then you’re going to want to consider purchasing this game. At less than $20, the game is worth the fun you can have together as a family, as you play your own version of this popular game show. There are some minor annoyances that may make gameplay repetitive, the online play isn’t as exciting as it could be and once you play a few games, unless you’re a Jeopardy fanatic, you’ll probably want to take a break before the next round. Of course, this game has longevity, in the amount of questions asked and the long lasting appeal of a game such as this. So, this holiday, you may want to consider this purchase, as a Christmas present or just for fun.

Overall Rating:

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