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Serious Fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 18
Date: July 04, 2002
Author: Amazon User

As with the book series, the subject matter of this video game is treated with complete seriousness. What makes the game fun is imagining yourself in situations in which you are not likely to ever find yourself. For example, how many people have to be worried about being attacked by lions or being tied up by a kidnapper? But, hey, it's good to be prepared.

In a full game, 1 to 3 players are asked a series of 10 trivia questions on such subjects as natural disasters, reptiles, insects, survival, etc. (For example, "How can you identify a black widow spider?" or "Why should you be concerned if you receive a package with too much postage?"). Unlike You Don't Know Jack, the "host" of the show only has a few all-purpose phrases during these questions ("This question is worth...", "The correct answer was..."), which is too bad.

At the end of these trivia questions, every player who has a positive score gets to play the challenge round. Each player is asked a series of 7 questions based upon different scenarios such as what to do if you are on a runaway train. Each question is accompanied by a series of graphics, and whether or not you get the correct answer, you are then shown a new graphic explaining the answer. This aspect of the game makes it more successful at teaching survival techniques than the books since you get graphics and clear explanations for everything, but only after you forced to try to think your way through the problem logically yourself.

The only real problem with the game is that some questions are very poorly phrased. I cannot recall at this moment a specific example I encountered, but to make up a question illustrating the problem, the game might ask "At what temperature are you likely to get heat stroke?" (or ditto re frostbite) followed by a list of temperatures. Of course, the most correct answer given that wording would obviously be the hottest temperature listed (or the coldest). But it never is! Instead, what they actually mean to ask is "At what temperature does heat stroke (frost bite) FIRST become a common risk?" which is a completely different question. Also, sometimes the questions and answers are quite wordy and it doesn't give you enough time to read anything, let alone think through your answer. However, these problems aren't large enough or detract from enjoyment of the game enough to effect my overall rating of the game. One other thing which is merely annoying is the fact that the opening and closing animated sequences with the "host" are always the same (and unentertaining), but you can just skip past them.

Scenario Scores!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 22, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This television show brought to life on a cd-rom is one of my favorite games to play, especially with friends. Not only do you have to play with other opponents but you can also set a personal score on the High Score records. The real life "what would you do?" questions are so fun to answer and explain as if you really were on the show. The music is so well done with the cd-rom. And so is the characters. You can have several people playing with you it can get so exciting! Especially trying to figure out the questions. This game is definatly a perfect ten!

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