Smarty Pants

I like to think of the game this way: it's fun with no clean up required. You won't have to worry about losing tiny pie pieces or having the molding clay it comes with dry out. You just turn on your system, pick up that Wii remote and have serious fun.

It has its annoyances, but this is a consummate party game package that everyone can enjoy. [Jan 2008, p.90]

Smarty Pants is fun. It doesn’t pretend to be anything more, nor does it need to. I will say that it’s not quite at the addictive level as the much-missed You Don’t Know Jack series (it’s missing the catty humor), but it’s certainly successful in accomplishing its modest goals.

Smarty Pants definitely has a more youthful vibe than SceneIt! but it's designed in such a way that both adults and children can have fun with it. [Feb 2008, p.82]

Smarty Pants is a perfect Wii title for a family fun night that will tease the brain and tickle the funny bones.

The game is a real doozy when you have friends over who are willing to play, otherwise the single player is a real letdown.

It's got a few issues with forced gimmicky controls, particularly the dance sequences, but for the most part the topics are well chosen, the questions varied, the Wii pointer functionality dead on and the tactile feel of buzzing in by snapping backward with the peripheral very rewarding.

Smarty Pants is exactly what you'd expect it to be, but nothing more. It's basically an interactive quiz, with none of the frills seen in rival titles from Sony and Microsoft.

Smarty Pants does a decent job of continuing EA's agenda to make games that the whole family can play.

As much as Smarty Pants wants to be the next big thing on the Wii, it sure could have been, but I just didn't feel the originality nor the fresh face that could have taken this game to the next level.

A solid fun title and you wont be disappointed, but just don’t expect to be wowed.

Smarty Pants is a decent activity to do with your loved ones once in a while, but it's not more than a simple pastime.

Family fun for quiz nuts but it isn't the madness we hoped for. [Feb 2008, p.82]

Critics have been a bit snooty about the game but with 20,000 questions on offer and graded skill levels, it works well despite the basic presentation. It's a good, unfussy family night. [Issue#19, p.89]

Smarty Pants is a fun, no-frills trivia game for all ages.

Overall, this is certainly a game that will get the family playing together this yuletide, but it is unlikely to see very much action on into the New Year.

The age-appropriate trivia is good, but the game itself gets old fast, and the motion-sensitive functions get in the way of the core gameplay: answering questions.

Smarty Pants will not appeal to everyone and for most of us it will languish under the bed or in the cupboard until guests drop by, or the kids want to play.

Smarty Pants has all the groundwork for a fun title that's good for gathering up your friends and enjoying a nice, simple Wii experience. Unfortunately, the developers refused to settle for a basic trivia game and instead opted to throw in every little idea they had for ways to make it more "interactive."

A game like this makes leaps and bounds over the conventional trivia game, but not as a single-player experience. The lack of an online mode, WiiConnect24 support, impressive graphics and outstanding audio ensures that Smarty Pants remain little more than a fun multiplayer title. What the game does, though, it does well.

The inane mini games and forced motion-sensing features turn a bland trivia game into an annoying one instead.

The graphics and sound are bland and lack party atmosphere; the shooting and dancing mini-games are lame; and even the spinner fails to function properly.

If you've got the right family structure, it would make a decent addition to your Wii collection. Otherwise, you'll need a caring and patient older sibling who is willing to dumb themselves down during gameplay for the greater good. How likely is that?

It's exactly what diehard gamers feared that the casual gaming revolution was going to inflict on the industry: shallow, gimmicky software whose main selling point is that no one is too young, old or uncoordinated to be able to play it. Buy a real videogame or buy a board game, but don't be a dummy and let Smarty Pants walk away with your 50 bucks.