RayCarsilloWrites.com

Originally Published: October 30, 2009, on 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com)

With family-oriented games developing a strong following, mostly due to the tremendous popularity of the Wii, game show type games are becoming hugely popular as well. Trivia games like Buzz! and 1 vs. 100 have seen a steady stream of sales for their respective consoles since their releases.

To cash-in on this trend, Ubisoft has released their 2010 versions of some classic game shows for the Wii like Press Your Luck, The Price is Right, and Family Feud figuring that if these new game shows could develop a strong following, that classic game shows that were once TV staples (The Price is Right still is) should do well also.

I don’t know how they will sell, but these games at least deserve more than a $1 bid. Press Your Luck is probably the worst of the three because of the luck factor. Most of the game deals with trying to avoid the “whammy” that steals whatever money and prizes you have accumulated while playing the big board with a randomizer. The person with the most wealth acquired at the end of several rounds of taking and passing turns, accumulated via answering multiple-choice questions, wins.

The graphics are typical of the Wii as your avatars are cartoon-like in appearance with a lot of bright lights and funny sound effects reminiscent of the classic TV game show. Due to the majority of the game being based around luck (hence the title, I suppose), I would probably say this was the worst of this old-school game show triumvirate.

Next on the review list is The Price is Right. This game show has always had a special place in my heart because growing up I would spend many summer days at my grandparents’ house and we always would watch The Price is Right at 11AM on CBS and play along at home.

The best part of this game is that there are actual clips taken from the show to display the items used to play the pricing games (Barker’s Beauties, or maybe they’re called Drew’s Darlings now, are included in the clips as well). With over 30 original pricing games and thousands of items up for bid, the game can almost never play out the same way twice.

Again, the graphics are cartoony and I would love for the theme song to be featured more prominently, but aside from those minor complaints, it reminds me of those summer days playing along with my grandparents except this time I actually have control over the bids and games (and the Golden Road pricing game is still the bane of my existence!)

The only gripe I have with The Price is Right game is that when playing with the computer, it is almost impossible to win the big wheel to make it onto the showcase showdown. I almost always go over or get such a paltry score that the computer easily wipes the floor with me. Again, like Press Your Luck, there is too much of a luck factor with the big wheel and it’s never fun losing to a computer. If you have people to play with though, this game is a winner all the way.

The final classic game show game was Family Feud. I saved this for last because this is by far the best game of the three because it is fun whether playing by yourself or playing with friends because it tests your common sense and leaves very little up to luck.

The purpose of Family Feud, as anyone who has had exposure to TV over the past 30 years would know, is to guess the most popular answers to survey questions. When one team (usually a family in the traditional show) reaches 400 points, they have a chance to send their two best players out for an abbreviated version of the regular game and if they can get another 200 points, the team wins $25,000 dollars.

This is a great family oriented game because everyone gets a chance to be involved and can either work as a team against the computer or against each other as they try to figure out the answers to the surveys. The theme song is classic and the graphics are typical of all the games featured in this article. I would say that if you are looking for a family/group oriented game show game for the Wii, then the best value for the money is Family Feud because there is no luck involved and the competition level is evident from the second the game starts.

It is nice to see these family interaction oriented games are going strong and that classic shows are being incorporated in order to help draw in the older audience that remembers the shows as well as the younger audience that might enjoy them. Now all we need is a $25,000 Pyramid game and we’ll be covered on the classic 80s game show front.

All three of these games are available now.

-Ray Carsillo