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Who Wants to be a Millionaire - 6/10

I love quiz games. From the arcade gold of Quiz and Dragons through Codemasters’ Pub Trivia to the numerous Trivial Pursuit games, they all feel timeless and fun, especially with friends and family. 

The last version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire that I played (for a good while) was the PS1 version hosted by Chris Tarrant. This game, however, has too much unnecessary extra baggage and combined with clear limitations, it, unfortunately, feels like a somewhat missed opportunity.

When the game initially loads up and asks you to choose your country, for a moment I had a rush of dread that I’d have to look at Jeremy Clarkson. As luck would have it, however, the game is instead hosted by a generic, animated host with an American accent (in the UK version, at least). 

Whereas previous incarnations of the game cast you as an unseen contestant climbing that 15 question ladder, clutching the three lifelines to your bosom like a fiver at a windy derby, this version sees you choosing from one of several fully voiced characters in order to hopefully get that million and it’s here that the cracks start to show.

Whilst the fundamental gameplay, questions and new lifeline (the ability to switch questions) are all still fun, the repetitive voice acting, awkward banter and quite frankly, bizarre casting (a man with a Hispanic name that speaks with an American accent having a clearly British son) make the rounds a bit of a slog to get to the real gold underneath…the tension and questions.

The game has several modes - including multiplayer and online - alongside a really neat implementation of unlockable subjects such as Disney, Superheroes and the like, a really good way of keeping the player coming back for more and giving a further over-arching objective beyond the million. 

After a few rounds, however, I really wished there was a ‘classic’ mode where all of the presentation could be pushed into the background, leaving me with the ambient music, tension and tricky questions that make up the heart of the show without the more cartoonish and jokey aspects of the game that get old so quickly.

6/10