Evil Mr. Cooler's You Don't Know Jack 2001 Edition Review
posted at 2:47 AM on Wednesday, July 12, 2000
| Publisher: |
| Sierra Attractions |
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| System Requirements: |
PC
-Windows 95/98
-Pentium 90 or better
-16MB Free RAM
-35MB Free Hard Disk Space
-4x (or better) CD-ROM Drive
-Display capable of 640x480 @ 256 colors
-Sound Blaster 16 or compatible 16-bit multimedia sound card
Mac
-Any PowerPC Macintosh
-System 7.5.5 or better
-10MB Free RAM
-35MB Free Hard Disk Space
-4x (or better) CD-ROM Drive
-Sound Manager 3.2.1 and Sound Control Panel 8.0.5 (included)
-Display capable of 640x480 @ 256 colors
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| Reviewed Using: |
PowerPC G3 @ 300 MHz
System 9.0.1
224MB RAM
26GB Hard Drive Space
24x CD-ROM Drive
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Note: You Don't Know Jack 2001 (YDKJ from now on) is actually two separate games: YDKJ Offline, and YDKJ: Louder! Faster! Funnier! Since actual gameplay mechanics don't vary much between the two, both are reviewed here. Besides, they come in the same box.
Introduction
A helpful warning on the front of YDKJ 2001 states "WARNING: This product contains mature content, including suggestive sexual references and language that may not be suitable for children. Besides, they won't get it anyway." A better way to state it would have been "WARNING: This product contains rehashed content, including mindless drivel and language that isn't suitable for comprehension by anyone. Looks like we don't get it, eh?"
I had high hopes for YDKJ 2001, I really did. I enjoyed the original YDKJ greatly. It really took computer trivia to a new level and it also proved that you could use your computer for something besides looking at porn during parties. Well, a good thing then must be a good thing now, right? Well, let's see. Berkley Systems has released the following games in the YDKJ franchise : YDKJ, YDKJ Volume 2, YDKJ Volume 3, YDKJ Volume 4:The Ride, YDKJ TV Theme, YDKJ Sports Theme, YDKJ Movies Theme, YDKJ Offline, YDKJ Louder! Faster! Funnier! - and 5 collections, YDKJ Huge XXXL, YDKJ The Irreverent Collection, YDKJ Pack, YDKJ Jumbo, and YDKJ 2001, PLUS the PSX version of YDKJ, giving us a grand total of 16 games.
It ain't THAT much of a great thing, folks. If Lara Croft could only sell 4 flavors of Tomb Raider on tits alone, YDKJ was bound to run out of steam eventually. The worst part about these two games is that they're both rips from Bezerk/Berkley/WON.net's YDKJ The Netshow (oops, toss that one in - 17 games now!), and use the exact same questions from it. Can you spell "rip-off?" I knew you could!
Gameplay
If you've played one, you've played them all. However, for the uninitiated, I'll give you a rundown. At the start of the game, you select the number of players, enter their names, blah blah blah…The game does a very nice job of explaining the rules onscreen and via a voiceover, which makes it easy for a pickup game at your next party (what kind of geek throws a party, though?). You'll then be presented with your sometimes witty, sometimes funny, sometimes lame, altogether annoying host - Cookie. He reads off questions, answers, and is sure to berate you for your stupidity when you answer a question wrong. Questions are a pretty simple affair - The person who won the last question gets to pick the category for the next one, and then anyone can buzz in when they know the answer. YDKJ has some very interesting categories, ranging from "Don't Ask, Don't Spell" to "Is There A Prize For 'Most Naked'?" to "Turkeys, Monkeys, and Other Keys that Don't Open Doors".
There are several types of questions in the game. The first, and most common, is the standard multiple choice. You're presented with a question such as "If men really are from Mars, and women really are from Venus, then what the hell do they have in common?", and 4 answers, like "1. their number of moons, 2. their distance from the sun, 3. their sweltering temperatures, 4. their carbon dioxide atmosphere" First person to buzz in and guess correctly within the time limit gets da money. If they're wrong, they lose the dollar value of the question from their total. You'll also encounter "Pissed about a question" questions, where rants from other YDKJ players that are much smarter (hah!) than yourself are "answered"; DisorDat questions, where you have to figure out if a word or phrase is one thing or another; Wendithap'n questions, where you have to place given events before, after, or never in relation to an event; fill-in-the-blank questions; Gibberish Questions, where you have to figure out what rhymes with a string of gibberish; and the infamous Jack Attack, where you have to match up words/phrases with their corresponding words/phrases. I know it all sounds complicated, but it's easy enough to pick up on once you get playing, as all of these are accompanied by in-game instructions on how to play.
Up to three people can join in your game, all using the same keyboard, which allows even more verbal abuse than the narrator can heap on you. Oddly enough, no one's ever thought about networking the thing over TCP/IP, something that would make this game a LOT more fun to me - It's not that easy to get a lot of people over to play. However, even if you elect to play with yourself, there's 2000 questions and over 50 hours of voiceovers to go with the game, which should keep you entertained for quite a while. While the gameplay is good and solid overall, it's the same thing we've seen the past 16 times. Maybe Microsoft should buy Berkley too, so they can "innovate" YDKJ a bit?
Graphics/Sound
Here's where this game shines and falls flat on it's face all at the same time. Graphics and sound are great, they're done VERY well for the game and fit in well with the theme. The voices are all well done and fit perfectly within the game. The commercials when credits roll at the end are some of the funniest things I've heard in a game for a long time, and sometimes Cookie spouts out a few jewels. The animations are all done well, and while never being too busy, keep the fast pace of the game going and are pleasing to look at.
"Gosh, EMC, this sounds great, what could possibly be wrong with it?"
THE GRAPHICS ENGINE SUCKS! On my test system, it took me down from 32-bit color to 8-bit (!!!) to play, even though it says that it requires 16-bit on the box. Alas, I looked again - it only requires 256 colors! Well, that's fine and dandy, but what about those of us blessed with systems that are miniature gods - can't we get pretty colors? The sound engine had the same problems, with a loss of clarity at times, along with general buzzing sometimes. Hard to explain, you'd just have to hear it. YDKJ 2001 appears to be based on the same engine as the first one was, and it shows through.
Conclusion
This game isn't that bad, I guess. But it IS rehashed, somewhat unfunny at times, and uses a horrible graphics engine. If you're some mad crazy trivia buff, you should probably get this. If you already have any of the previous titles, though, don't bother - you aren't missing much. This could be a great game if they had bothered to bring it up to date in terms of graphics, along with versus play over TCP/IP. Maybe in YDKJ 2002, eh? Better luck next time, Berkley.
Visuals : 3/5
It's a pretty game, no doubt about it - but the engine's lackings bring this down to a 3 from a perfect 5.
Sound : 4/5
Sound quality was good overall, and the voice acting was good for the most part as well. Some of it was funny, too.
Gameplay : 2/5
You Don't Know When To Quit, do you, Berkley?
Value : 3.5/5
If you're a freak for trivia, it'll keep you entertained for a while. For those of us with brains and lives, probably not.
theVerdict : 3/5
"It was the best of times, It was the worst of times…" Not fully bad, not too good either. Good for trivia buffs that are starved for more questions and a healthy verbal berating. anism of planning where to stash the body.
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