Tonight we attempted to play "Who wants to be a millionaire". The board game of the game show that started in the UK and went on to become a worldwide hit. The version we played is based on the original version and so the questions were biased towards the UK and the monetary values were in £ (sterling). We picked this up at a charity shop or boot sale some years ago in the UK and it had been in game storage since.
In the game players rotate as "host", and after everyone has taken a turn as host, winnings are totaled. Players answer multiple-choice trivia questions of increasing difficulty, or may choose to stop and keep their winnings up to that point in the game as per the TV show. You may only accumulate winnings while NOT the "host" so in the rotated roles, just remember that if you are last to be "host" then that's it as far as your cash total.
The board game has replacement mechanics for the "ask the audience" and "phone a friend" features. These allow the board game to function similar to the actual TV and the rules for this appeared to be fairly straightforward. There are cards supplied to simulate both of these scenarios and if followed correctly the rules do a fairly good job at this. However during the game this evening these mechanics seemed almost impossible to follow in any structured format by those playing and, to be honest, proved to be a little frustrating particularly as this led to the opportunity for some to exploit the misunderstandings of others. Perhaps on another playing the format may work better, but the combination of youth (son and daughter playing alone) and age (mother-in-law) along with myself and Joanne resulted in a less than smooth gaming experience. There is also an opportunity to disrupt your fellow players, if you wish to, during these parts of the game.
As to the game itself. Played between 4-5 individuals or teams of similar levels of general knowledge and with a greater willingness to actually get on with the game, this would probably be a fairly quick light game. Probably 30-45 mins in total if played with attention, not the 90 minutes it took to slug our way to the end! Best played as a warm up in relaxed environment not the ultra competitive, win at all costs, fest that eventuated at the table tonight.
The questions did get harder as the money went up and no-one on this play got higher than £125,000 which is probably about par for the difficulty of the game. The fact that the "money" was never real did detract a little from the game, after all it wasn't really £93,000 you were about to loose if you got the next question wrong!
Component wise the quality is okay. The plastic card holders that contain the question and answer (on the reverse) worked fairly well although someone did notice that even when placed face down on the table it could be possible to see if your opponent had selected a specific answer by the amount of orange that could be seen through the answer hole on the back! These card holders double as selection markers but again this was a little confusing as to whether the selection was the letter you had covered or left uncovered. (Uncovered if you're wondering). The cards are standard stock and easy to read. Double sided for two questions per card. The money is coloured depending on value and a good size. All components fit neatly and are organised well in the box.
Overall an average 5 out of 10. Might play again in a party setting with an older group, probably stick to something simpler and easier to play/understand with younger players.
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