|
|
|
|
||
        |
|
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
3 Smileys - 1 Smiley Poor, 5 Smileys Excellent
Platforms: Mac OS, Windows 9x
Taking the Wheel for a Spin
Gameplay
Wheel of Fortune offers three different playing modes. The mode that will be most popular is simply called Normal and involves pitting you against 1 or 2 other contestants who can be controlled by the computer or other real people. You can then decide whether to play a 10, 15, or 20 minute game or have a game with 3, 4, or 5 rounds. This is just like the television show, along with prizes and commentary from both Vanna and the computer players. You spin the wheel and guess letters by clicking on the letter tiles or using your keyboard. If you're right, you can solve the puzzle, buy a vowel, or spin the wheel and hope for "big money." The special wedges such as lose a turn, bankrupt, free spin, and jackpot are on the wheel. There is also the Jackpot round, Speedup round, and the Bonus round that you participate in if you win the normal round. The second mode is Solo which is just like Normal but you play by yourself and are given up to eight free spins. You lose a free spin every time you choose a letter that's not in the puzzle and when you have used all of your free spins, the game is over. The last mode is a tournament and lets you choose from a selection of up to 3 players who have received high scores. The manual says that you compete with them to become Wheel champion.
Network?!? Unfortunately, there is no Internet play so the people have to use the same computer for multiplayer. I think that this is an unfortunate omission since Wheel of Fortune is a social game and would benefit from playing against human beings. I expected that there would be similar GameRanger support to that of another Infogrames title, Risk II (reviewed in this issue) and I don't understand why it wasn't included.
Overall Impression
There are many aspects of Wheel of Fortune that make it seem less than a polished game. The inclusion of Vanna White and talking computer players were a nice touch but hearing the same comments over and over again made me quickly turn off the audio. Then again, if you're a fan of Wheel of Fortune you might like that sort of thing. There are 11 different locations but the only change were the pictures used as the backdrop. The rest of the set stayed the same and Vanna didn't even switch outfits. I also think that the 2000 puzzles will get repeated sooner than later and you'd be surprised at how quickly a person starts to remember patterns. Eventually, a person will recognize the puzzle before all of the letters are filled in which removes most of the challenge inherent in Wheel of Fortune. If new puzzles could be added then I wouldn't have this objection, but the manual didn't make any mention of it so I doubt this will be added later. The movies of Vanna and the prizes were grainy and didn't seem as incorporated into the game as I think could be possible. This is just a minor criticism since having higher-quality movies would have increased the requirements and it seems that Wheel of Fortune is aimed at people with older computers.
Recommendations If you or your family likes Wheel of Fortune and you aren't disappointed by the lack of Internet play then I recommend buying the computerized version since it replicates the gameplay of the television show very well. If you like game shows in general then I recommend buying this game since Wheel of Fortune is one of the classic game shows that never seems to grow old. If you're anyone else then I suggest avoiding Wheel of Fortune and buying a game in a genre that will provide more variety than Wheel of Fortune can provide. It's not a bad game by any means, it's just a simple one.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Title
