Jeopardy!
Reviewed by Scott McCall
Following in the footsteps of America's top-rated syndicated game show
(Wheel of Fortune) comes America's favorite game of answers and questions.
Jeopardy!, however, has been much-maligned in the video gaming press. True,
it's not as slick or as fun (to most people) as "The Wheel," but I do believe it
has gotten a bum rap. This version of Jeopardy! is no worse than any other
console version; in fact, it's probably better.
Graphically, Jeopardy! is not as nice as the N64 version of Wheel of Fortune.
The game does include some full-motion sequences of Alex Trebek, though
there doesn't seem to be quite as many clips as Wheel of Fortune. Unfortunately,
the contestants in this game also have the look of cardboard cut-outs. There are
two problems that Jeopardy! has that Wheel of Fortune didn't have, though. First,
the game has a much more grainy look to it. The category board needs to be
cleaned up big time. Second, the pans and cuts of Wheel of Fortune are missing
in here. When you buzz in, the camera moves in at a very rough single step rather
than slowly zooming in. Also, in between questions and such, there aren't any
shots around the set. The graphics are bland, through and through.
Aurally, Jeopardy! is also a few notches below Wheel of Fortune. While Wheel
of Fortune had the different contestants with different voices making comments
and yelling out letters, not to mention an involving crowd and a spinning wheel,
Jeopardy! is quite lackluster in the sound department. Alex doesn't have very
many comments, and the contestants are too quiet. Crowd involvement is also
at a minimal. The only thing Jeopardy! has over Wheel of Fortune is when it
comes to music -- the renditions of the themes are great. The sound effects in
here are also quite faithful.
Where Jeopardy! starts to shine through a little bit is in the control and options
areas. First off, Jeopardy! does not support the Rumble Pak. Also, for some odd
reason, you are forced to use the Control Pad instead of the Control Stick.
Those two quirks aside, the N64 version of Jeopardy! has control that's about
as good as it can get without a keyboard. The A button is used to buzz-in to
answer or is used to select a letter. The Z button can be used to buzz-in to
answer, but it also enters your response at the letter entry screen. So it's
kind of like a shortcut instead of going down to press the "Enter" key on the
virtual keyboard. The L button is used to jump one word back and the R button
is used to jump one word ahead. The B button is used to go back one letter.
There are also shortcuts for the C group: Top C enters a hyphen, Bottom C
enters a comma, Left C enters a period, and Right C enters a space.
Jeopardy! contains many options that help elevate the series to a new level.
Besides changing the sound effects and music levels and choosing between
several different players (along with giving them a name), you can set some
options in the game to your liking. Here's what can be changed:
Computer Opponents' Skill Level -- Easy, Average, and Expert
Response Entry Options -- Loose Spelling Accepted, Computer Assisted
Responses, and Exact Spelling Required
Question Difficulty Level -- Easy Questions Only, Easy & Average Questions,
and Easy, Average, & Expert Questions
Response Display Settings -- Displays Correct Response and Does Not Display
Correct Response
So how does the video game rendition of Jeopardy! work? Well, first of all,
there is a 10-second "lockout" that gives everyone time to read the answer
after it is picked. (Remember, in Jeopardy! you are given the answer and must
buzz-in with the question.) Nice. After the lockout period ends, there is a period
of 15 seconds for someone to buzz-in with the correct response. If someone
does that, then they have 60 seconds to type in their response by using the
virtual keyboard that's displayed on-screen. If they get it wrong, then the
remaining contestants have 5 seconds to buzz-in before moving on.
The N64 version of Jeopardy! includes over 4,000 answers directly from the
TV show that come from 650 categories. The designers decided to break up
the answers and categories into three types: easy, average, and expert. So if
you select "Easy Questions Only" in the options, then there will only be a bank
of about 1,500 answers and about 215 categories for the computer to randomly
choose from. In order to play with all 4,000+ answers and 650 categories, you
must select the "Easy, Average, & Expert Questions" mode in the options.
Jeopardy! also tried to bring a little innovation to the table by letting you
select how responses are entered and showed. Playing with "Computer
Assisted Responses" makes the game bring up probable responses as you
enter letters into the virtual keyboard. The game will, at times, bring up the
correct response maybe after you're only half-way through entering the letters.
Then you can quickly press Z to accept that, save time, and be on your merry way.
Of course, you will often not see what will probably be the correct response
unless you entered the response properly (i.e., putting "Mt." before the name of a
mountain) or maybe not even until you nearly enter it all. Still, it's a nice option
to have. You can also change it to "Loose Spelling Accepted," but it's definitely
not as "loose" as one might think because the questions still have to be phrased
properly. There's also an option that makes the game NOT display correct responses.
You'll probably see some of these categories over and over, so why reduce the game's
replay value a little more by having it show you the correct response if you didn't
get it right?
And, unfortunately, that's the game's biggest problem -- repeating categories.
Despite built-in EEPROM chips only adding $1 more to a game's production
costs and Controller Pak support being free, Gametek, for some completely dumb
reason, made it so Jeopardy!, like Wheel of Fortune, does not save the categories
used if you turn the power off. Of course, previous versions of Jeopardy! didn't keep
track of the categories, either, but this is 1998 now. The major problem with the
lacking of saving is that Jeopardy! has a mere 650 categories while Wheel of
Fortune has over 4,000 puzzles. The nature of the two games obviously makes it
that way, but I was disappointed to see repeating categories in the few short
times I played and turned the power on and off.
It's not possible for Jeopardy! to match the fun factor of Wheel of Fortune, mainly
because it's much more difficult, but it's baffling as to why the game doesn't look,
sound, or feel as slick as that aforementioned game. From the bland presentation to
the glaring grammatical error on the back of the box ("with it's..." should be "its"),
Jeopardy! seems sloppily thrown together and, subsequently, is not as satisfying.
Nevertheless, the game is far from a disaster and will probably provide many adult
and casual gamers with hours upon hours of fun.
Graphics: 2.5 out of 5
Sound: 2.8 out of 5
Control: 3.5 out of 5
Gameplay: 3.4 out of 5
Lastability: 2.6 out of 5
Overall: 3.1 out of 5