Game Shows For Your iPhone

We touched upon the home games before, but I got a few more I think we should get into.  I’m a giant Apple snob; I really won’t use Microsoft unless I absolutely have to.  I leaped on the opportunity to get an iPhone, and I can’t recommend it enough if you have the income to pay the remotely pricey monthly bill.  Music and the phone is nice, but really, the best part is the whole application feature.  Some companies are coming out with game show applications, where you can play your favorite game shows for a small price.  And luckily one of the perks of being in the press is getting free stuff to review, so with that, here’s a rundown of the the ones I’ve had access to, which is basically all of them.

 Right now the best game show app is Who Wants to be a Millionaire?.  We went over it a bit in our Christmas gift post.  It follows the rules of the current version perfectly.  Fifteen questions, categories given, the four lifelines (including Double Dip and Ask the Expert which features ten experts.  Look for Ogi Ogas as a Russian pimp), time limits, everything.  I don’t believe there’s been a version of Millionaire which has followed the rules so exactly since the original computer games from Jellyvision.  All of the show’s music is included in fantastic quality which adds a lot, graphics are accurate to the current version down to small starbursts swirling behind the dollar amount you have, and it includes a video introduction from host Meredith Vieira.  You can get it for $4.99 right now which isn’t too bad, but honestly it’ll go on sale eventually and probably knock half of that off, so be on the lookout.
Next is the app for Price is Right from the makers of the computer and Wii game, Ludia.  If you’ve played any of those you know what you’re getting.  You can play the game like the show, or play the much better and more enjoyable three strikes mode.  Every time you lose a bidding row item or the big wheel, you get a strike.  Once you get three strikes, it’s game over.  I think it’s a bit lame that you can lose because of the wheel, but it keeps the game moving I guess.  It stops the “enthusiastic fans” from just destroying the game and running through everything quickly.  Graphics are fantastic, the music and audio is directly from the show, and it includes clips from the show.  I could only find one negative, and it also involves the graphical presentation.  I know they were making the game in the middle of a big transition in the show, but this game made me remember how much better the current set is than the old darker Bob Barker set.  Hopefully we’ll see some update to the current era of the show.  But beyond that, it’s worth the current 20 percent off price of $3.99.  I’ve seen it as low as 60 percent off.

Up now is a newer one: CBS’s Million Dollar Password 2009.   It’s tough to mimic the word guessing game while playing by yourself so RealArcade did what they could.  Game play involves your “celebrity partner” giving you up to three clues.  Answers are scrambled in a box below; you just have to click each letter in order to make the Password.  It starts out pretty easy but definitely toughens up.  However, it never reaches a true challenging level, and a level of enjoyment that you get from the previous two games.  Party mode is where this game comes alive.  You need a group of people to play in party mode, and it plays like the show.  You see the word, you give clues.  You click if it’s right, wrong, or an illegal clue.  Simple as that.  And if nothing else you can play a fun game of Pyramid with it.  Graphics are cartoony, and it works because implanting random 2D images of celebrities against a cartoon background would look awkward.  But the show’s graphics are used, and music is accurate.  Price is only $0.99, so this is the best bargain and a definite recommendation if you need a fun party game.

Rounding out my list right now is the very disappointing Deal or No Deal: Million Dollar Mission game.  You know how the game goes, and this version plays along with the thing that helped kill the primetime version, the Million Dollar Mission.  Different modes like the Mission, where you have 13 $1,000,000 cases available, and another version where the only values on the board are a million, half a million, and a penny.  I Play tries, but it doesn’t make the show any more enjoyable to play.  It’s hard to because you don’t get anything for winning and there’s absolutely no challenge.  A puzzle version of Deal was released for the PC a while ago, and that worked, but this doesn’t.  It also needs mentioning that the graphics are really bad; there’s no reason the other games and companies can get good graphics and this looks like one of those games you plug into your television.  You get a few seconds of the main theme, but the rest isn’t actual show music which is confusing.  Other good quality music is used; could they not get the rights to the show music?  It’s really a mess.  It’s on “Super Sale” for $2.99 right now, and even if it was any cheaper, I can’t recommend getting this for any price unless they do something to make it more enjoyable.