Le Geek - Retrogaming Reviews

Rating
Graphics:	4
Sound:	4
Control:	5
Depth:	5
Overall:	4

Trivial Pursuit

By: Domark
Released: 1992

I felt I really needed to review this one because frankly I thought it was going to stink. I played Jeopardy for Sega CD and the experience was rotten, both from the AV perspective and also the dated questions.

Trivial Pursuit is a much, much better game. Everything works smoothly, from entering players, making moves, answering questions, even viewing player stats.

Most of the questions I encountered on my playing time were reasonable to a modern player, such as classical music questions for the arts. They haven't changed much in the last 15 years. Sure, they asked me a question about Manchester United, which would have been easier if I were British, and the year was closer to 1992. But for the most part I was pleasantly surprised.

What I really liked was the "host" of the game, a penguin who asks the questions from his library. He does all sorts of neat things. For instance, for the music question he sits down at the piano in his study to play the tune. His post question comments get a little repetitive but that's to be expected. The sound is not bad. The "talking" whistling noise the penguin makes is kind of funny. Mercifully the game lets you turn off the music...it's not bad but after awhile enough is enough. I had to give it an extra point for that feature.

It's hard to call this a must have game. It is surprisingly playable, but maybe not one you can come back to week after week like the arcade titles. But it can be had cheaply on eBay.uk, even with shipping, and it's a really good example of the quality of the titles released for the Master System. Well, in the UK anyway. It plays fine on a US Master System.

- Eric Ruck