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Jeopardy! the gameshow has been around since 1964, is
internationally syndicated, and has its own locally-produced versions
in countries across the world. So chances are pretty good that I don't
have to tell you the basic premise. As expected, this is the Gametek
home version for the NES, and even today it remains an excellent
interactive replication of the show.
I'm actually surprised that I haven't thought to review this earlier,
because Lil' J Man, his father, and his older sister were known to play
this frequently and to the death. In fact, I remember a particular
incident where I rang in, answered incorrectly, and then muttered aloud
"oh, well then it must be [insert other answer here]." I did this knowing
full well that A) what I had just announced was bullshit and B) my father
was going to capitalize on my "slip up." He took the bait magnificently
and lost his money as well. When he realized he'd been had, an amusing
lecture on sportsmanship followed. The lesson here? 8-year-old Lil' J
Man was a conniving sonuvabitch.
The NES game expertly recreates all three rounds of the show.
After setting up the parameters of your game and selecting a
character to represent you (in true Gametek fashion, they're among
the worst drawings of humans in game history), you're left to select
from six categories of five questions each. This is not a specialty
version of the game with a standard theme, so the questions are
varied and pulled from general knowledge. They generally break out
into some aspect
of science, history, or popular culture. That last one may be an
issue, because this is not a children's game any more than the TV
show is. So this is adult popular culture, written for people who would
have been about 30 in the late-80's. There's a fair chance that
culture won't be so
popular as you read this. I mean, you all remember Luke and Laura
don'tcha? No? Well you remember that Lil' Abner lived in Dogpatch,
right? Or that Phil Silvers played Sgt. Bilko? How about an entire
category dedicated to Warren Beatty? No idea what I'm talking about?
Well then I guess you're fucked. |
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The game is designed for three players, with a computer player
filling any open slots. The AI offers a decent challenge, and a
difficulty level setting how frequently they ring in and how often
they make mistakes. These mistakes are handled interestingly, as
Gametek didn't waste space by giving the computer characters fake,
incorrect answers. Instead, they type out gibberish. But if you look
closely, you'll note that it actually is the correct answer, with
random letters masked out by other characters. If you're lucky,
you'll be able to find enough of a clue in their "wrong answer" to
get it correct yourself, or at least offer assurance if you're on
the fence.
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Ringing in is accomplished by pressing any direction on the
D-Pad for Player 1, any face button for Player 2, and the D-Pad
again on the second controller for Player 3. It does mean that the
first controller must be shared by the first two players, and I
can confirm from experience that it opens up the possibility of
blocking your opponent from pressing the buttons, or ringing in for
them while presenting them with a smug, challenging look. Answering
is done by moving a cursor across a letter grid with the D-pad, and
building your response letter by letter. As you might expect,
spaces are generally ignored, but your spelling has to be pretty
much exact. Any errors, like flipping or missing letters, stand a
good chance of being rejected. It seems a little unfair considering
you don't know how to spell to win at the show, but there's no way
around this on the NES. Shortcuts generally are considered, so "Schultz"
and "Sergeant Schultz" are both valid answers. You
have only 40 seconds to construct your answer,
which is enough only if you don't make a serious mistake.
Struggling around on long answers is an occasional problem, and I
remember a few times where I wasn't able to
finish building the response. The game considers this an incorrect
answer, and you lose the points. |
Another bit of cheating can be pulled off by simply ringing in as
soon as the question appears. There is no "lock-out" time for everyone
to read the question, so frequently my father would just ring in
instantly and THEN read the question - taking a (usually correct)
gamble that he would know the answer. To this day it remains one of the
most cheesedick moves I've ever seen. It's also kind of sad that half
the review is telling you how to cheat, but that's how my family
did buisness.
Gameplay continues through Double Jeopardy where point values are
doubled, and finishes with Final Jeopardy. The contestants are given a
single category and the chance to bet their current winnings on their
confidence in being able to answer whatever the question may be. After
bets are placed, the players are each shown the question in turn while
the others are expected to leave the room or turn away (I recommend
they leave the room...). The interface here is identical to answering
a question elsewhere in the game. After everyone has answered, the
scores are tallied and the winner is named. The game resets and you
can start over again.
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It's a nice looking game, with blues, blacks, and browns
recreating the set well. Alex Trebek, or any host at all, are
excluded from the game, thankfully. Judging by how thouroughly
they biffed the characters that are in this game, any
attempt at Alex would be a total embarassment. There's a nice
rendition of the Jeopardy!
theme at the title and Final Jeopardy screens, as well as a few
little musical stings for correct and incorrect answers, and
ringing in. They add some activity to what would otherwise be a
game entirely made of beeps and boops of a cursor moving around,
but do tend to get a little annoying after hearing them 60 times
per game at the very least (one for each question). I'm not a fan
of having to jog the cursor around to "type" out a response, and
the game would have benefited greatly from being on the PC and
having a keyboard, but the game works well for what it is. The
cart does suffer from limited memory, and so you will see
questions recycled rather frequently. It also doesn't help that
every category will always contain the same five questions.
You'll probably get a repeat category by the fourth or fifth game,
but only really have trouble around the twentieth. At the very
least it can give you an edge against older or more triva-savvy
opponents by allowing you to remember or learn the answers.
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Hazel turns into a demon. Seriously, look at her.
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Looking back, I suppose this is a title that I've had the longest
continuous history with. I owned the cart and played it when it was
released, stuck the game and emulator on a floppy disc (and later a USB
key) when I should have been working at whatever job I was in at the
time, and just recently played it again for this review. So about every
four years, I find myself playing this same version of Jeopardy. I'd
make some snappy little wrap-up-the-review statement, but the previous
fact alone probably says more about its lasting replayability than
anything I could put into words.
-reviewed 5/9/07 - game copyright 1987 Gametek
Nice version of Jeopardy!, good for groups and worth playing;
provided of course that you like trivia games.
Limited questions quickly grow stale, "honour" system is open to
easy abuse by the dishonourable.
Jeopardy (NES) on MobyGames
Gameplay video at NESGuide
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