TV Show King

Well, maybe not, but TV Show King is a saccharine sweet, inoffensive game show-styled video game that will have you inviting friends over for an evening of general knowledge questions and good times. It is fun, when you have the right group of people playing with you and by that I mean other like-minded people who have a penchant for normally useless knowledge and an affinity for some good fun. Yes, I suppose that is a loaded statement. but like anything, if you set yourself up for success then usually it happens. And in this case, if you can get friends who dig on this sort of game to play with you, then you're aces baby.

TV King is a game show style-video game that reminded me of those trivia games you can play in sports bars. Adult readers will remember the game with its random choice answers that reward the first person to answer the question first (correctly) with the most points. TV King operates in a similar way with you playing against three other players (either real or A.I.), whoever answers correct first gets the biggest point reward. Thus penalizing those players who just follow what the know-it-all in the room does, only to come up a bit short in the points total.

The great equalizer in the game comes in the form of a giant wheel that players spin between the 3, 6 or 9 rounds you can select to play. The wheel can be spun by you, if you like, and depending on your total score can help or hurt you. Money totals litter the wheel, but so does slats that indicates money loss, money swap and money trades both in your favor and not. So, you must weigh your options carefully, if you are neck-and-neck with the top person, it may be in your best interests to spin the wheel in the hopes of adding a large dollar total to your score, but be aware, the A.I. will always pick the highest dollar score to take money from if the spin indicates. I know this may sound complicated but it isn't. Just understand that you could rock your way through six rounds and have a huge dollar score, only to have the last-place person spin the wheel and land on the slat that says they can swap any other players score for their own. Sometimes life just isn't fair.

The game does a real bang-up job of making some smart graphics. First you can use your Mii's as the players but the game takes all of your other Miis and puts them in the audience, then the prototypical smarmy game show host comes out and calls the play by play. The show set looks good, the big giant wheel is very similar to another famous game show wheel and the look of the game is really spot-on. Since the game is based in the word of the Mii's, you can expect some simple yet decent graphics, the game is designed to be light-hearted fun and it looks the part. To answer the actual questions, you quickly read them (the host does not) and you can select from four answers below by pointing at it with the Wiimote and hitting the "A" button. If you don't like your answer you only have seconds to change it. Often, the game's A.I. will give you a couple moments' head start, but the higher the difficulty, the faster you need to be reading one of 3000 questions premade for the game.

Since the game has the look of a game show it also has the sounds. The host has a good tone and the clap-track of the audience is lifted straight out of Jeopardy. Crisp sounds, clever, subtle sound effects and good voice work make this game better sounding then it has a right to be.

If you plan on having friends over to play, you had better have four Wiimotes since each player needs one to point at the screen. Interestingly enough, random bonus questions pop-up that are worth even more money and the later rounds have answers obscured by graphics that you must scratch away or use a tiny window to read the possible answers adding a little something extra to the game, not that it needed it. The final portion of the game takes the two highest-scoring characters and pits them against one another in a race to see who can answer five questions first. If both players answer correctly, its the player who answered it first who gets the win. Once that occurs, 50% of the losers total goes to the winner, so even if you are down $73,000, you can still win the game by having your opponents' 50% and your measley $13,000 for a winning total $49,500.

One has to ask, the only way a video game that is a game show works, is if the game show could actually be played in real life by contestants and be successful. In my opinion, this really could be a game show. The fact that four players could duke it out is intriguing since most game shows feature three contestants. Would I watch? Probably; the winning dollar totals can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, so it is totally in line of what other game shows are doling out to their contestants.

On a side note, the game also has a single-player bonus game where you answer questions to see how many you can get right in a row. It's just a little something extra that you can do, it doesn't add anything to the game, but it is something. In fact, at this point you should understand that this title is something that is best played with other people and not so much against the A.I. It's all right at the beginning but there is nothing like live competition in a game-show atmosphere. Dare I say this is practically a party game. I dare and it is.

Gameplay: 7.2
Point at the answer, spin the wheel; it is not the most demanding of Wii games, but what it does, it does pretty good.

Graphics: 7.0
Fun, upbeat atmosphere of a game show - everything is nice and bright, easy to read questions and moron A.I.

Sound: 7.1
Fun sound effects and game-show music with snappy sound effects.

Difficulty: Medium
Your best competition will come from your friends and family.

Concept: 6.5
There have been other game-show games, but this one does a good job of meshing other concepts into something new. Too bad there is only 3,000 questions.

Multiplayer: 7.5
The game should really only be played in multiplayer mode.

Overall: 6.7
While things are great with friends around, this won't be a title you'll be running home to play by yourself. Snappy graphics and zany sound, but just not enough challenge and depth, still, a worthy entry in the party game mix.