Pretty confident? Is that your final answer? You’re absolutely right, this is a review for Who Wants to be a Millionaire! The television gameshow that has taken over the television ratings, over the last few months, has made it’s way to the PC. It really comes as no surprise that Disney decided to convert this popular television show to the PC, and it was certainly a wise choice to get Jellyvision to develop it. For those of you who might not be familiar with Jellyvision, they are the masterminds behind the highly acclaimed You Don’t Know Jack series of titles. So the million dollar questions beckons:

Were they able to capture the absorbing drama behind Who Wants to a Millionaire?

A. Absolutely
B. No, but Regis is still sexy
C. No, but they’ve recreated the mechanics of the show well
D. I like cookies

Pretty confident? Is that your final answer? Well, let’s find out.

All the ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ trademarks are found in it’s PC counterpart. The futuristic set decor, the dramatic music, the three lifelines, and even Regis Philbin himself. For those of you who might not have heard of the show before, the object of the game is to correctly answer a series of 15 multiple choice questions in order to win a million dollars. To aid you in your quest for a million dollars, you’re given three lifelines. You can poll the audience, you can eliminate two incorrect answers to a particular question, and you can phone a friend. This is basically the only portion of the game that has been altered for the PC title. While the 50-50 and audience poll lifelines remain the same, you obviously can’t get Regis to actually phone a friend for you, or can he? What ends up happening is that Regis phones a ‘friend’ that has been chosen ahead of time by the computer. These ‘friends’ are voices that have been pre-recorded, but they don’t actually know the question, so how can they answer? The bottom line is that phoning a friend is not an option. It’s simply a feature they threw in to keep in the same vein as the television show. The friend is merely picking a letter at random and is really no help whatsoever. That’s something you’ll realize instantly the moment you choose that lifeline. Other than that little glitch of sorts, Jellyvision has recreated the mechanics of the gameshow completely.

So were they able to recreate the atmosphere to along with the mechanics? Unfortunately, not one bit. For those of you who’ve watched the show, you’re probably well aware that once an individual gets over the $32,000 safeway, the decision to continue answering questions is a significant one. If you answer a question incorrectly past that point, you’ll only leave with $32,000. If you had $125,000 and you didn’t know the answer to the $250,000 question, you’d take the money and run, rather than risk $100,000 on a bad answer. That’s a lot of money to risk. In the PC game, there’s no risk at all. There’s no real money involved and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t make a guess. In that respect, the dramatic atmosphere is completely absent. (aside from the nerve racking music that continues to play in the background).

You don’t have to be a math wizard to figure out the following equation:

Mechanics - Atmosphere = Trivial Trivia Game

If you make your way to the million dollar question, and get it right, will you want to venture back again? If you enjoy trivia games, you probably will. However, if you’re looking to find out what it truly feels like to be in the hot seat, this isn’t going to do it. It’s not going to get your adrenaline pumping and it’s not going to make you think what you could do with $64,000. It’s simply another trivia game based on a television show that is extremely popular at this point in time. Will it test your intelligence? It certainly will. Will it test your nerves? It certainly won’t. So, if you chose,

C. No, but they’ve recreated the mechanics of the show well

You just got the million dollar question correct!! (audience applause here) Too bad it wasn’t actually worth a million dollars. Did you still have fun though?

A. Yes, I want this game
B. No, I’ll take a pass
C. Maybe, I’ll think about it
D. I like cookies

Is that your final answer?