|
|
Million Dollar Password
|
|
|
|
|
|
Graphics & Sound:
Upon launching Million Dollar Password, it will quickly become clear that the game won't be winning any awards for outstanding graphical quality. Granted, the game embraces this fact with extremely cartoonish characterizations, especially of Regis Philbin. As if Regis were not already hard enough to watch on television, his grotesquely swollen head and freakish expressions left me almost squeamish at times. The cast of six supporting characters are almost as bad, being generalizations of stars from differing entertainment genres that are there to help you out by giving you clues. The genres represented include hip-hop and rock performers, a model and an actress, a racecar driver and a wrestler. Still, I believe this look was purposeful on the part of the developers, and while I find it a bit over-the-top, I suppose it could be worse. Other than the characters, the graphics are pretty true to the television game, down to the logo. The text and interaction parts of the game are easy to read for the most part, the exception being occasional confusion between the characters "H" and "K".
The sound quality of the game was passable. As expected in this sort of game, there were no vocalizations. Still, aside from the lack of voiceovers, the background music and the other ambient sounds just did not convey the quality that I've come to expect in other games, such as Tiki Towers, published by RealArcade. To play the devil's advocate to my own criticism however, there is an admitted lack of depth in the game that would require a more robust soundtrack and it did attempt to mimic the sounds one would hear if watching the show on television. |
|
|
Gameplay:
In Single player mode, rounds start off, after the introduction of your Million Dollar Password "guest" teammate, with a speed round where you have to guess the correct password or passwords before a rapid timer expires. After that, you must find up to two words in a word-search board. Doing all of this will earn you bonus time in the ladder round. Once you advance to the ladder round, you must get five words correct within the allotted time. The scrambled letters will appear in a box at the bottom of the screen. Your teammate will begin giving you clues, up to three per word. If you know the word, you must type it in correctly. If you do not know it, you can pass and attempt the next word. The number of passes available will decrease each round until finally, in the million dollar round, you will not be able to pass. Enter five correctly, and you advance to the next round, winning more money as you progress.
In multiplayer, the choice can be made to play as individuals or as a team. If individuals are competing against one another, they will each be given a turn at a money round. Pass the round, and the player advances. Fail, and that player is out. Up to six rounds can be played per game. Match play as teams is a bit different. In this mode, one member of the team sees the word on the screen and tries to get the partner to guess the word by giving clues. If successful five times within the allotted time, the team moves on. As before, there are a limited number of passes per turn and these decrease as the rounds progress. |
|
|
Difficulty:
The most obvious difficulty with any iPhone game is generally how the touch-sensitive screen is used. In Million Dollar Password, players use the screen to unscramble the letters from the jumbled box at the bottom of the screen. For the most part, this works rather well, but there are some occasional issues which detract from the game. Speed is of the essence and every now and then, when trying to enter a letter as your teammate is giving you a clue, the game will lag and the letter will not be entered. If you are a decently fast typist, this can become quite the annoyance, as you may have misspelled the word without meaning to and will have to remove the letters back to the one you missed to make the correction.
Besides the above-mentioned problem, the game is relatively simple and straightforward and should be easily understood by most players. There are tutorials available from the options screen if the player needs to take advantage of them. I found the game very easy to conquer, even in the later rounds of the season. Unfortunately, although the library is touted to contain some 8,000 words, by the time I reached the final episode, I encountered nothing but repeated words. However, this could potentially be upgraded in the future, so one can hold out some hope. |
|
|
Game Mechanics:
Million Dollar Password is first and foremost a word game. The idea is simple, take a jumble of letters, get a few pertinent clues and then unscramble the letters to form a word that either relates to or is similar to the clues given. To accomplish this within a given timeframe, the player needs to have a decent grasp of English, be able to tap the screen relatively quickly and have a good eye for solving puzzles.
After introducing your clue-wielding compadre, the player begins a match play by solving two quick password puzzles. They are followed by a word-search round where players must find particular words within a large grid of letters (visualize the pen and paper word search, only using your finger on a touchcreen). Solve both of these to earn a substantial time bonus in the money rounds. When the money rounds begin, the player will have ten chances to get five words correct in order to earn $10,000. The next round is worth $25k, followed by $50k, $100k, $250k and eventually, 1 million dollars. The questions get notably harder as the rounds progress and the player is given the option to stop after each round, the old "take the money and run." However, in a game where matches take only 15 mins. or so to play, not going for the million dollars doesn't really make much sense. Players are guaranteed $25,00 after completing the second round and $250k after completing the fifth round, so even if they fail, they still get some money. Ah, if only it were real.
Million Dollar Password, despite its flaws, is a decent game and very reasonably priced at 99 cents (at the time of this review). If the library becomes a bit more robust, this could be a very fun and long-lasting addition to the iPhone/iPod collection of games.
|
|
|
-The Mung Bard, GameVortex Communications AKA Buddy Ethridge |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
