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Welcome
to Game of the Week! Each week there will be a
new featured game on this page. The game may be good,
average or diabolically bad, it really doesn't matter!
Just look at the pics, read the text and enjoy the nostalgia!
:-) Game of the Week! is open to contributions so if you
would like to contribute
a game article for this page you're more than welcome
to! Every article we receive will be considered! |
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The
Trivia Monster
1984 Cosmi
Programmed
by Paul Norman
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Most
text of the present article comes from the review published
in the fisth issue of the British C64 magazine ZZAP!64
(September 1985). |
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MONSTER
TRIVIA
US
Gold, £9.95 cass,
£14.95
disk, key
inputs only
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Monster Trivia is based on the popular 'trivia'
question games that have invaded the market over the
last couple of years. The idea is an exceptionally simple
one: you are asked a question and you have to give the
answer, which, if correct, is worth points depending
on its difficulty.
Monster
Trivia is this sort of game exactly and contains
many questions on all sorts of different subjects. When
you load the game you are asked how many people are
playing, and their names and sex. You are then given
a character which appears on screen and all characters
sit in what seems like a mediaeval dungeon complete
with mouldy walls, slit windows and a large door behind
them.
Now
the questioning starts. You are asked to pick a subject
and are asked a question concerning it. Get it right
and you are given points along with rapturous applause,
and are also allowed to take a bow. Get it wrong and
something nasty starts trying to get into the dungeon.
The game carries on this way, with the monster gradually
wrecking half the wall and door (at least it did when
we played it because we got so many questions wrong).
Once
all the questions have been answered the winner stands
and takes the applause and the loser meets the rather
horrible fate of being gobbled by the monster who comes
bursting in.
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Although trivia games are
popular and have been very successful, I must say I
find them rather boring to play. They have certain limitations
in that you get to know the answers as you play and
after several games it starts to lack in any
appeal it may have once had. Admittedly
with the board (bored?) game you have thousands
of questions and answers to learn, but this doesn't
quite apply to this computer version. OK, so there are
16 sets of questions to load up in Monster
Trivia,
but that isn't that many when it boils down to it, especially
considering that a large
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majority
of the
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questions
are so 'American'.
It would have helped if the
interpreter used was reasonably lenient, but it
isn't. It does get incredibly infuriating when
you enter '11' as the answer to the number of
players in a cricket team, only to be told you're
wrong when you know you're right and then find
out you should have entered ELEVEN! The average
graphics don't exactly make the game any more
fun to play, neither do the strange sound effects
or Cosmi-esque music.
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Presentation 79%
Nice instructions and good on-screen presentation.
Graphics
55%
Reasonable characters and monster.
Sound
67%
Atmospheric screeches, wails and
moans with some good music.
Value
For Money 51%
Too American and fussy for even
hardened trivialists.
Overall
53%
Trivial sums it up quite nicely.
.
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Htmlized by Dimitris
Kiminas (29 Nov 2002)
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