A little look at how 1 vs. 100 is doing…
If you follow my twitter feed on the site, you’ll know that I went to see 1 vs. 100 last week. I said it could be the sleeper hit of 09 and a few days after that post, I stand by that comment. It’s a game that can be addictive, yet simplistic at the same time.
The version we played was a beta, but it still managed to have 83 people all connected. There were about 16 of us playing it in the Microsoft offices, the rest were other consoles all playing the beta. The quiz has a live commentator who can give shout-outs if people email him during a scheduled show on Friday or Saturday night. The rest of the week seems to be just to build up your overall score; the real prizes emerge on the weekend in the form of Microsoft points all the way to a car. I must admit, I never did see a car when we were playing the beta, but no-one defeated the 100 either.
Gamers will either find themselves in the role of the 100, the crowd or be the lucky one to take them all on. If you are in the 100, you get the same questions as your opponent but if you get it wrong then you head into the crowd and just answer questions for fun. If you do really well in the 100, you have a chance of becoming the 1 in the next round and even win a share of the prizes if the contestant gets a question wrong.
The questions we came across seemed to be localised, but apparently they will be more mixed when the game launches this Spring. The 1 can use a few methods to avoid answering questions by choosing an answer that was most selected from the 100 or by the fastest and smartest member of the 100. It’s a risk, but if you don’t know what the answer is…it’s more or less the only option left to you. There’s also a time limit to giving an answer, so you can’t go browsing the web while playing because you won’t have enough time to do it.
If there’s any concerns to be found, it’s that once the live commentator is gone, the avatar miming what he says will continue to do so…hopefully that will be fixed by launch. You can also make your avatars animate during the game by tapping the Y button really fast and you can swap different expressions with a few taps on the d-pad, so you can be pumping your arms up into the air and then start jumping up and down. It all goes towards some stats as well, so it seems just as important as getting your answers in faster than the rest.
1 vs. 100 appears to be the only game of its type on any platform, because it’s more than just a game. It’s an interactive TV show and one that is going to be hard to rival, although I do hope Microsoft make more games other than 1 vs. 100 especially since they are collaborating with Endemol. I’d personally like to see a version of Deal or no Deal with Microsoft points in each box. All the way from 1 point to 25000 points or something like that. Please make it!
It remains to be seen how well the game will be received but being a free download for Xbox Live Gold members, it’s hard to imagine that they won’t be tuning in on Fridays and Saturdays to try and win some arcade games or points to go towards a bit of downloadable content. I’m personally looking forward to finding out and trying to take the prizes from the rest of you…Be sure to keep an eye out for the full review closer to launch.
Yes it is a great game and one that once it goes live everywhere will be a hugh hit. I played the Canadian Beta and I absolutely loved it. Deal or No Deal and Who wants to be a Millionare will be great additions to this if they can make it happen. The other consoles don’t have anything like this and the fact that your getting real prizes makes it even better. In Canada I think there was a sweepstakes for the beta where they were giving away an Elite with 4000 Points, a HD Camcorder, A Laptop and an Arcade Game. Can’t wait for the real thing.