Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? - Junior (Game Boy Advance) - Review by Andrew

Introduction

You only have to sit down for a matter of minutes these days to realize just how important children have become to the world of commerce with both magazines and television tempting anyone under the age of 20 with their latest and greatest product. There's also more television dedicated towards the younger viewer and the average satellite broadcaster will have a considerable amount of channels under the 'kids' option. It seems fitting then that ZOO Digital is releasing this junior edition of their best selling quiz series with this very market in mind. We managed to win a million every time when we played it so it only seemed fair to hand it over to the experts: my nieces aged 6 and 9.

Gameplay

For anyone who's managed to completely miss out on the phenomenon that is 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' the show goes like this. An individual member of the audience must answer 15 progressively more difficult multiple-choice questions (with four answers) in order to win a million. The popularity of the show is linked to two important factors. Firstly everyone believes they could win and secondly there is the choice of whether to attempt to answer a question or simply take the money and run. The show has been franchised in almost every country in the world and the million in question changes value radically depending on where it's played.

One thing that separates it from run of the mill trivia shows is the introduction of 'lifelines'. There are three of these, which act as a kind of helping hand when the contestant doesn't know the (sometimes obvious) answer. The first is '50-50', which removes two of the answers giving you more of a fighting chance to get it right although an awful lot of people still guess the wrong one of two. Next is the 'Phone a Friend' option where you've pre-selected your most intelligent friend to give you some much-needed advice. The final one is 'Ask the Audience' which is wholly dependent on just how intelligent the audience actually is and, as a result, is probably the least reliable of the three.

This GBA version puts you straight in the hot seat as soon as you press 'start'. In some ways this is a bit of a shame and it's obvious that the increase in the number of available questions has been achieved at the expense of some of the finer gaming aspects that featured in the GBC version such as the winning of a WWTBAM cheque made out to you. There's no high score chart either nor is there a save feature although this is no real loss as anyone who plays is only really interested in the ultimate prize and nobody remembers the contestant who won a mere thousand.

Controls

As this is a multiple-choice quiz show the control is incredibly simple so the 'D-Pad' and 'A' button (for select choice) are used almost all the time. Everything else follows suit and the various menu systems are also logical in their layout with very user-friendly navigation. That's all there is to it. No complicated sprite detection or graphical updates to worry about, just answering those questions correctly.

Graphics

The actual presentation is an almost perfect replica of the TV series visuals with the slightly larger GBA screen making the text even easier to see. This is a gaming type though where the on-screen appearance is secondary to the actual content and most quiz addicts still find a title with little or no graphics thoroughly enjoyable. There's also a generous amount of FMV to link the various parts of the show and despite the studio appearing to be completely empty it is a welcome addition to the overall presentation.

Sound

The game's soundtrack has been ported directly from the TV series and although it's apparent that a much of it is on a loop it works very well. The audio is also used incredibly well to build tension once the contestant is past the thousand mark so that even when you're convinced you're correct you start to doubt yourself simply because of the sound. Obviously there's also the audience who applaud your successes and sigh at your incorrect answers. Overall, a good use of audio intelligently used to enhance the overall gaming experience.

Final comments

If you've played any of the other versions then you'll know exactly what to expect and even though my younger niece hadn't seen the TV series she found the controls reasonably intuitive after a somewhat bumpy start. The older one (who's had a GBA SP for around a year now) felt very comfortable with the game in a matter of minutes although after some seven or eight attempts she still hadn't won the million pounds. She did however point out one of the major criticisms of the previous versions: repeated questions, and with still only 1,000 to choose from this is always going to be a drawback although from her point of view in now meant she knew the answer. Overall the six year old grew tired of the games format quite quickly whilst the 9 year old thoroughly enjoyed the quiz format to such an extent that she has since 'liberated' the game from my desk.

Pro: Will Make Adults Feel Clever.
Con: Simply More of the Same.
Final score: 7.5

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