I had never played the original Trivial Pursuit, so I’m a bit of a noob when it comes to the game.  Fortunately, EA has made the game easy to explore and play for really any type of gamer.  Whether you’re looking for a game to play with some friends, family, or anyone in-between, this is a satisfying option for any occasion.

The menus are colorful, very well designed, and easy to navigate no matter how video game savvy you are.  The music is entertaining, as are the various sound effects your puck emits every time you move along the board.  The announcer commentary is comical at first, but it gets annoying as soon as you begin hearing the same lines over and over again.  The puck animations are amusing, as you never simply slide across the board.  Instead your puck grows wings and flies, hovers like a UFO, teleports, swims, and a variety of other animations to make it just a bit more entertaining.

There are a few different game modes to choose from, the first being Classic.  In this mode your goal is to beat your opponents in collecting all of the wedges.  Each wedge represents one of six different categories including: Geography, History, Arts & Literature, Science & Nature, and Sports & Leisure.  Once you or your opponent collects all six wedges you win the game.

In the Facts & Friends mode (my personal favorite), you and your opponent(s) share the same puck and take turns answering questions one at a time.  When its your turn to answer a question your opponent gets to bet for or against you, which adds a great twist as well as a bit of strategy to the game.  Every time a wedge is won all spaces that share the wedge’s category are removed from the board until only the final category is left.  Once all the wedges are won they become lifelines for the final showdown.  For example, if you have three wedges at the end of the game you can get three questions wrong before losing.  This makes for a very intense death match where the tables can turn in an instant.

There are thousands of questions ensuring that you shouldn’t ever come across the same question twice (unless you spend a lot of time playing the game) and the downloadable question packs add extra categories like TV, Movies, or Video Games.  If this game had online play, which is surprisingly absent, it would be well worth its asking price.  Unfortunately, the feature is missing and that drastically reduces its value.  Since the board game is $10 less I recommend getting that or waiting for this game’s price to drop.
 

Gameplay: 8.0

Simple, intuitive controls and a few modes give gamers plenty to do.

Graphics: 7.0

No jaw-dropping visuals here, but they are polished enough and the board piece animations are cheesy enough to make this an attractive game.

Sound: 7.0

Decent sound effects, background music, and humorous albeit sometimes repetitive comments from the announcer keep the game from becoming dull.

Difficulty: Medium

The level of difficulty really depends on how well you paid attention in school.

Concept: 7.5

If you’ve played the board game, other than some different game modes this isn’t much different from the original formula.

Multiplayer: 6.5

Great fun whether you’re playing with a group of friends or the whole family, but the lack of online functionality is unforgivable.

Overall: 7

This game has a high replay value, looks good, several modes that twist the original game in fun ways, and manages to be a fun experience without doing anything terribly mind-blowing.