Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

We all do. Numbers are the name of the game in the electronic table top version of theTV fix-of-the-year – allegedly. Chris Tarrant asks the questions andbadgers you about whether it’s your final answer, stretching things out tolonger than they need be, such as waffling about how “Player 1 – You arestill in the game”, in a manner that makes him sound like Yoda !Why can’t a button press skip this and all of Tarrant’s other waffle as itbecomes as much a pain as the “opening door” sequence in all the ResidentEvil games which never goes away.

There are 1500 questions here – with an option to buy further separate packs -simply actioned by inserting the required question card and typing in thefive-letter code. When the game is up and running, the logistics are intuitiveenough, including the option to tell Tarrant that, yes, it is your finalanswer and you can pause the game too.

The option of 50/50 plays the same way, while “Ask the Audience” has Chrisinforming you which is the “most popular answer”, which is the “second most..”,then third and least popular answers, with no percentages given; and”Phone a Friend” doesn’t bring up a random voice as in the console game, butrequires you to actually ask somebody during the same period of 30 secondsthey give you in the TV show.

As a game, it’s pointless. You won’t win any real money, except the ‘advantage’this has over the console version is the ability to hand each other fakecheques with the wrong date on – since each episode of the TV gameshow isfilmed at least a day in advance. Also, here you’re able to win any amount.On the PC, Playstation and Dreamcast, you could only win one of four possibleamounts – £0, £1000, £32000 and £1 million – since therewas no “I’ll take the £64,000 and go Chris”, listed here as a”go home” option, because there’s no point. However, if you want to bow outin this game, you can do.

If not fulfilling a life of monetary dreams wasn’t enough, Tarrant’s constantdelaying doesn’t make you want to play the game more and more (like peopleseem to want to do with the TV version judging by the ratings), it justirritates you and the fact that the actual words and FX coming out sound likethey’re playing on a dodgy Medium Wave radio. The plastic flap over the gamebuttons also has a tendancy to fall off.

As a result, this plays like a poor man’s Trivial Pursuit.I would recommend people buy that one instead as it’s much more entertaining,but I know scores of people will go for WWTBAM these days becausethe sales of Eidos’ console version have cleared the one million mark!

OVERALL

For more information, please visit theTiger Toys.co.uk website.