Ripley's Believe It Or Not! The Game

Rating:
Summary: Not YDKJ
Review: Actually, for people like me who are obssessed with strange factoids, this product rates a weak 5, but this game will be less exciting to those merely looking for another You Don't Know Jack.

There are 4 types of questions: 1. Multiple choice trivia smilar to YDKJ, 2. short statements upon which each player can wager 250 points whether they are true or false, 3. photographs for which the first to buzz in must pick the correct caption (after which the other players can wager whether or not it was the correct choice), and 4. (the final speed round) matching the caption on the screen with the correct flashing picture. The trivia questions and true/false questions are largely based on rather arcane trivia, so much of the time it is actually complete guesswork (although applying your existing knowledge can help). The other two types of questions involving pictures are ridiculously easy and mainly test to see who can buzz in the fastest (for the former, the alternate choices are usually just humourous and won't throw anyone off). And other players can copy your answers for question types 2 and 3. Therefore, as a trivia game it is not the best and it isn't all that great as a solo game (unless you just want to enjoy the factoids, though a cd-rom of Ripley's original strips would make for a better solo experience). Also, don't expect YDKJ's wicked sense of humour. It does occassionally have witty responses to incorrect answers, but not for correct ones. All this is okay however since the factoids are inherently interesting without humourous comments and its value as a party game comes from the fun discussions you'll have over the strange facts and photographs (the atmosphere while playing this game is far less competitive and more like a shared experience).

Some pros: It has great looking design work and narration and tons of interesting facts and photos.

Some cons: 1. The game does not keep track of high scores. 2. Saying that it "features" the voice of Jack Palance is grossly misleading. Palance has about two lines at the beginning of the game and narrates the options page...the rest is well done but by some guy with a British accent. (I suppose Palance's dramatic pauses would result in the audio files taking up too much space.) 3. Some explanation of some of the answers would be appreciated at times. For example, a true/false question was something like "A war was started because of a dispute over a cow". After learning the answer is true, the game just moved on to the next question when I would have appreciated learning, e.g., what war this was referring to. (Fortunately 99% of the factoids do not require explanation, but this 1% is frustrating.) 4. During one of the games I've played it asked the same photo caption question twice. And, 5., it does not automatically adjust for the size and resolution of your monitor's graphics setting. I have to readjust my monitor to 400x600-16 Bit before it allows me to start the game.