Should you pursue this classic board game on the Wii?
Gather up your pies and wedges, round up friends and family and join in the fun with Electronic Arts as it celebrates the 25th year of Trivial Pursuit by offering new ways and places to play one of the world’s favourite board games. Since the official introduction of Trivial Pursuit in 1982, the phenomenally successful board game has been testing millions of game players’ wits with versions ranging from the original “Trivial Pursuit” to “Trivial Pursuit: Family,” “Trivial Pursuit: Junior,” and “Trivial Pursuit: 25th Anniversary Edition.”
I remember playing Trivial Pursuit as a kid, I was terrible at it. But I do have some good memories from it, like the infamous pie and its wedges. There have been a few games of it over the years, but now it’s on the Wii. Can the Wii Remote add something new to the game? Besides pointing at your answer and shaking the remote to throw the dice, not really. Especially since the motions can be substituted with either the A button or D-pad.
The Wii version of Trivial Pursuit lets you play against friends with the original version of the game or you can tackle the game single handed in “Clear the Board” which sees you trying to capture all the wedges to finish the game. It’s a shame that there’s no WFC support as it would have been nice to play with friends, but it’s not a big surprise…it’s just unfortunate.
The game plays like it always has. You go around the board, answering questions in specific subjects to move on and then answering the key question for a wedge. It’s a good solid version of the classic board game, although the Wii’s visuals do make the questions more pixilated than on the next-gen platforms. The screenshots in the review are actually from the Xbox 360 version as I just couldn’t find a single Wii screenshot. So don’t go thinking that the Wii version looks as crisp as this, because it doesn’t.
Besides trying to capture wedges, the game also has objectives for you to complete such as finishing the game, answering a certain amount of questions or getting a high multiplier. It does add a bit more replay value to the game, but it seems a little pointless overall. All your stats are put on to your profile, so you can see how many category questions you have got right and so on. It’s a nice touch, but nothing special.
The music in Trivial Pursuit is a mixed bag. The announcer does tend to repeat one-liners a lot and they can be quite annoying, even the first time you hear them. Apart from that, it does a good job in terms of presentation…although I would have expected it to look crisper considering its in 480p.
The Verdict
Trivial Pursuit does a good job in capturing the classic game, but it seems a little pointless on the Wii. It has one motion for throwing the dice and lets you point at answers, but that’s about it. Also, the lack of online hurts it…although it was expected. If you have been dying to play a console version of the classic game, then this is the best you’ll get. Just don’t expect it to be brilliant.
