Take part in the greatest game show with the ultimate cash prize! Enter a TV show where finding objects for prizes is the name of the game.Take part in the greatest game show with the ultimate cash prize! Enter a TV show where finding objects for prizes is the name of the game. Push the roulette wheel and see which tricky challenge you must complete next. Stars mean money. Collect as many stars as you can and see the prizes total up. Be lucky and you might just win five million dollars!
Developers Gogii Games has always been one of the better companies behind HOGs and The Hidden Object Show is no exception. The idea behind the game is quite clever. You see most HOGs don’t realistically work with interesting plots because the reality of having to search for hidden objects as gameplay is ludicrous. So preposterous in fact that it didn’t take developers long to forget about trying to explain why you’ll find a CD or bicycle in a medieval fantasy game or why you’d find a rolling pin inside a bathroom scene. Gogii Games doesn’t totally solve this dilemma but it does take the gameplay mechanics and builds a whole setting around the genre. Having The Hidden Object Show play out as a game show is a great idea. You get a game show where finding hidden objects in a scene within a timed limit gets you stars or prizes while the host (who’s clearly out of his depth) takes you through this TV experience to win the ultimate prize of five million dollars. It must be noted this cannot be done on the first playthrough and will take repeated playthroughs under the same save file to do this. I guess it’s an artificial way to extend the gameplay.
The game show itself takes place within an old abandoned film studio and the randomised games are picked via spinning a roulette wheel. In certain scenes you can pick up hints to help you locate an object or you can pick up ‘Skip Chips’ that when placed on the roulette wheel between scenes can be used to avoid certain types of games you don’t wish to play. The list of games include: the typical hidden object searching, the same thing but in silhouette mode, spotting the difference between two screens, the same game but mirrored, riddles that have to be solved to find objects, a memory game of finding and replacing objects you just found, finding ten of one object, locating on a grid parts of an image to unlock words, the same thing but with the images rotated as well as bonus timed mini-games. Some games are trickier than others so you’ll definitely want to use those Skip Chips where possible. As a reminder it’s a game show the audience will cheer or boo depending on your success while even the host acts impressed when you get good. The game show format adds an interaction missing from previous games as now the spotlight is on you and everyone is watching. The prizes at the end of each level likewise are meaningless but still entertaining to see what you got. Two things ruin your enjoyment. The biggest issue is that the game came just before HOGs started being optimised for HD. It’s sometimes impossible to find stuff or make out details even in the clearest of screens. It becomes an unnecessarily hard game because of the poor resolution visibility, not because of your eyesight and it’s dated badly because of that. Also while setting the game show within an old movie studio seems like a good idea a huge feeling of repetition sets in when you begin seeing the same white/gray coloured decrepit walls. Every room begins to look the same; there just isn’t enough variety to want to continue, not enough to visually grab you.
The Hidden Object Show has an original concept let down by poor visibility and a lack of visual variety and considering it’s a game show that just isn’t acceptable. Thankfully at least one of these issues is resolved in the sequel.… Expand
