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Strike It Lucky DVD GameThe Amazon blurb says: Based upon the popular TV game show, this interactive DVD allows players to progress through a series of questions, answering them via the DVD player’s remote control. That sounds a bit boring! How does it work? It works almost precisely like the TV show - you're given a category, and you can bid two, three or four answers for two, three or four moves across the studio. You get six possible answers and a question to go with it. If you get it right, the answer is eliminated from the screen and you get another question until you've fulfilled your bid, or you get it wrong, in which case Barrymore comes up, admonishes you, then gives the next team in line a chance to steal the moves. Whichever team fulfils the bid gets to move along their bank of monitors. Behind each one is a category (more of which in a minute) or a dreaded Hot Spot, which wipes out any categories you got that turn and ends the turn. After each screen you can bank the category or risk it and move on to the next screen. The first team to get to the end of their arch faces the final Strike it Lucky question, a multiple choice question on one of the categories they have banked throughout the game. If they get it right, they're through to the final, if not the other teams get a chance to catch up. In the one player game, you have five "lives" and you must get across the board. You select how many questions you're happy to face on the category, and if you fulfil the bid you move across the board, but a wrong answer means you lose one of your lives. If you're unlucky enough to hit a Hot Spot on the board you lose a life also. If you succeed, you're through to the final. In the final, the aim is to make it from one end of the studio to another but this time you play horizontally and vertically. Behind each screen is either an arrow, which is a free move, a Question, a true or false question which will turn into a Hot Spot or a Free Move depending if you get it right or wrong, or a Hot Spot. If you hit more than three Hot Spots, you lose. If you make it to the end, you can enter a text competition to win an entertainment system. Is it good? It's easily one of the best DVD Games we've tested. There are basically two main criteria when it comes to reviewing them. The first is "is it like the show?", the second is "does it do it well?" Other than the slight slowness you expect with DVD games, this is a pretty perfect recreation of the game, with the rule change from prizes to categories at least making contextual sense. In fact, the questions are slightly more difficult than they were on telly, so in some ways it's actually a better game. They've made a computer representation of the eighties set with Barrymore filmed inside it doing all the links, of which there are many (although inevitably they repeat a bit). He doesn't voiceover the questions, which means there is more space for more of them. The computer graphics on the monitors and sound are accurate (although the question board is a bit more up to date), and the jackpot final in all its top, middle or bottom glory is simple enough to work brilliantly. They've even got the "let's jumble them all up!" sound in there. The only faults are minor and slightly silly (i.e. they've not managed to fit the words "strike it lucky" into the Strike It Lucky questions). Basically, we wouldn't hesitate in recommending this to anyone. |