1 vs. 100 – NDS – Review

Trivia games are a tricky business. Without the
formal game show setup in place (where bad contestants are supposed to be
screened and eliminated ahead of time), game developers have to make a best
guess in deciding what’s difficult, what’s easy, and what’s ridiculous. It’s
especially hard because you never know who’s going to play your game –
brainiacs are sure to jump on board, but what happens if Izzy Idiot or Stan
Stupid jumps on board? Negative e-mails and blog posts are bound to ensue.

Sony has cleverly avoided these problems with
their intelligent Buzz! series, which offers a greater variety of topics and
questions than most, less repetition, and a goofy, lighthearted appearance.
The controller design, which looks like it came from a game show, didn’t
hurt either. Where does this lead other trivia games? Most opt for a
license, as seen here with the release of 1 vs. 100.

An Army of One

Based on the TV show of the same name, 1 vs.
100 is a game of contestant-versus-audience. Audience members (referred to
as the “mob”) can be your friend or foe, as they have the power to turn the
tide in your direction – if you trust them. The game (and every subsequent
round) always begins the same way: one question is asked and three possible
answers are given. Pick the right answer and you win the first pot of money,
a small sum that can be taken now or put aside for a shot at bigger cash
prizes.

Question example: “H&R Block will help you
tackle which difficult task?”

A. Changing your oil.
B. Doing your taxes.
C. Painting your home.

If you’re five years old or on the run from
the IRS, you may not be aware of H&R Block’s corporate mission. That being
the case, there are a couple options to get you through the game: (1) trust
the mob, (2) ask the mob, or (3) poll the mob. The first choice
automatically picks one of the three possible answers for you, based solely
on the choices made by the majority of audience members. If you choose to
“ask the mob,” you’ll be stuck with a 50/50 response. Two audience members
will be selected at random, only one of which has the right answer. Finally,
when polling the mob, you’ll get to see how many people choose one
particular answer.

Make one bad choice and you’re out of the
game. To win, simply answer 10 questions correctly, which is enough to go
from the $1,000 prize awarded for the first question all the way up to a
million dollars awarded for the final question.

When it’s all said and done, there’s a poker
version of 1 vs. 100, allowing players to bet on the likelihood that they’ll
answer the question correctly. Temptation, another mode, allows you to pick
and choose which questions to bet on based on the category provided. It’s
still the same 1 vs. 100, but now with a slightly different presentation.

Saving Private Byron

We’ve all seen (or at least heard of) the
movie Saving Private Ryan. But for those who have been living under a rock
for the past decade, perhaps with those Geico cavemen, 1 vs. 100 offers this
simple question:

"Which private did Tom Hanks save?"

A. Brian
B. Byron
C. Ryan

Tough stuff, I know. How about this one:

“It’s not a creepy crawler or computer
problem. This bug was a crazy dance craze.”

A. Jitterbug
B. Litterbug
C. Twiddlebug

Isn’t that an opinion?

If you don’t know the answer to a question
and have used all your mob-related options, a quick Google search will lead
to the answer almost every time. Yeah, that’s cheating. But the main mode
provides no time limit to prevent you from doing that. Besides, after the
answer is provided just once within the game, you’ll likely remember it and
be able to bypass that question easily when it reappears. And though
question intervals aren’t as repetitive as the trivia games from the PSone
era, they still repeat themselves.

When choosing an answer, players will be
forced to wait five seconds for the game to respond to your selection, and
another 20 to 25 seconds after that for the game to be still and do nothing,
load a cheesy animation of an empty game show arena, and bring up the screen
that asks if you’d like to go with the mob (you’ll stay in the game,
forgoing cash) or take the money and run. By the time the 30 seconds are up,
you’re not eager for the next question – or another 30 seconds of waiting.

The biggest problem with this single-player
mode is that, once you’ve defeated it, there’s no reason to return. You’ll
see different questions here and there, but they all fall under the same
ridiculous theme of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?-caliber pop culture. Even
the more challenging, historical questions, or those that relate to
celebrities you don’t care about, are barely worth a second look. Answering
them correctly isn’t fun; in fact, you may grow to hate winning because the
load times for doing so are longer than when you lose.

Review Scoring Details for 1 vs. 100