I was very hesitant to get this game, and wouldn't have if I wasn't stuck at home for three weeks. Owning nearly all of the previous YDKJ games on the PC, I've always been a huge fan, and it was the game of choice in my dorm room with friends. Upon hearing of a console release with a four-player limit, episodic format (which I remember from The Ride), and some altered mechanics to makeI was very hesitant to get this game, and wouldn't have if I wasn't stuck at home for three weeks. Owning nearly all of the previous YDKJ games on the PC, I've always been a huge fan, and it was the game of choice in my dorm room with friends. Upon hearing of a console release with a four-player limit, episodic format (which I remember from The Ride), and some altered mechanics to make things more fair, I had a very good feeling for this version. However, I was turned off hardcore upon discovering that the Jack Attack was based on the flash version of the game (Huh?) and that there were no gibberish questions, one of my favorite things in the previous games. I can understand not having gibberish questions in a console game, since there's no keyboard, and typing in answers would take forever, and I'll let that slide. So let's run down the list of things that are important here. One, the episodic format, which you likely remember from The Ride more than anything else, is *not* based on themes. In The Ride, every "episode" had a certain theme, like alcohol, or the government, or celebrities, or something like that. It wasn't a perfect system because right off the bat you'd know who'd have the advantage in the episode. For instance, if the episode was about computers, and one of you is a computer technician while another is a political science major with little computer experience, you know right away who's going to win. So, while this is avoided since each episode has no specific theme, it's still misleading to call these things "episodes" when the questions have virtually no connection. Perhaps the biggest change, though, is the way questions are answered, which is vastly different from any other YDKJ game. First of all, all players can answer, rather than a single player buzzing in and earning the prize. It's conceivable that every single person can get the answer right, and there is no special bonus for being the first to answer. Instead, how much money you get from a question isn't based on the question itself; all questions are worth an equal amount of money (doubled in round two), and the amount you get decreases as the clock runs down. It's very simple: If you buzz in with 14 seconds left, you get $1400, or $2800 if it's round two. Buzz in with two seconds left, and you get $200. All multiple-choice questions have an identical value, sans special rounds. This system actually tends to work, especially for wireless controllers, because if only one person buzzed in and answered, that person might just have the advantage of being closer to the TV, or being wired. It's arguably a nice new mechanic that helps ease the game along. The Dis-Or-Dats have also been changed somewhat. In previous versions, there was nothing complicated about them: You had two or three choices for each word or phrase, and you picked the right one to earn money, or picked the wrong one to lose it. This version makes things a little more complicated. First, the amount of money you earn is largely based on how quickly you can answer all the items correctly, and the time left afterward is a bonus in addition to the regular value of the items. The second thing is that other players no longer totally sit out in this round, and now have a role to play. If the main player of the Dis-Or-Dat gets an item wrong, and other players buzz in the correct answer *before* the main player answers, they will all share the money earned, which is considered a "steal". It's great that there is now an opportunity for other players to join in the Dis-Or-Dats, rather than having all but one player sit out completely.
However, not everything here is perfect. Let's just get this out of the way: the flash version of the Jack Attack just isn't as good as the ones that came before it. In fact, it seemed like the Jack Attacks got progressively worse as time went on, and were made less and less intense. And here, we have, in my opinion, the least likable Jack Attack created. It's very busy, not particularly tension-building, and just noisy, but not in a good way. I would have vastly preferred an earlier version of the Jack Attack, maybe even the original, or The Ride. There's also one other really, really huge problem with the Jack Attack: Whereas most games before this one had answers worth $2k each, this one does them at an unreal $4k each, which is simply not right. Keep in mind that questions are all fixed in value, and all things considered, $4k is an obscene amount of money. You can understand, then, that you can absolutely suck at the main game, but come back and win in the Jack Attack. At some point, you just have to draw the line on how much of a game-breaker a Jack Attack can be. One unlucky category and all your hard work goes down the drain. So, some things are lacking, and some things work. Is it worth it? Sure.… Expand
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