Back in 1998 a little TV show started which gave members of the public a chance to win up to £1,000,000. That show was 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?' and it is still on TV occasionally with new episodes on ITV and endless repeats on Challenge.

The format is deceptively simple.....answer 15 (or, later in the shows run, 12) questions of increasing difficulty to win increasing sums of money. Throwing in lifelines like Ask the Audience and Phone a Friend added a little bit of excitement now and again, but the simple suspense of contestants risking thousands of pounds on an answer kept audiences riveted.

There have been several video game versions of Millionaire over the years and it's already no stranger to Xbox Live having made a recent appearance on Windows Phone. Now though, we have a fully blown Xbox Live Arcade release.....how does it stack up?



Firstly, the presentation. It is well presented with it fitting in with the aesthetic of the TV show, with the only thing missing being Chris Tarrant. Instead we get a generic animated quiz show host who is relatively inoffensive even if he does tend to repeat himself regularly. There is no real point discussing the graphics in a game like this. The unreal engine has no doubt been worked harder, but it does a decent job. But are you really playing this for the breathtaking scenery? Skyrim would like a word with you if you are.

Likewise....sound. The theme is ever present. Which is to be expected, but it does tend to get a bit annoying when looped over and over. Luckily you can turn the music off. Same with the host. He only seems to have a small selection of stock phrases, so you may be turning down his volume sooner rather than later.

On a game like this, although presentation can be important, you live and die by your gameplay

The game plays out like an episode of the show. You start with Fastest Finger First, but don't worry because even if you fail you get to go in the chair straight away. Lifelines are used as they would be normally, but as you aren't phoning a real friend or asking a real audience their responses are always correct early on, but later on can seem a little bit random. This can get quite annoying when you are actually in need of help!

There is also multiplayer, local only, which amounts to nothing more than all players taking it in turns to answer their own set of questions with the winner being the one who gets the furthest. It is a shame that they didn't take the format and do something similar to what they did with 1 vs 100. A totally online free-to-play version is something that would be seriously successful if done right.



Another problem with quiz games is longevity. Sooner or later you will see repeat questions and from then on, the game is a chore. Luckily that hasn't been the case with this game yet, mainly due to the fact that it has launched with additional question packs as DLC straight away. Special mention must go to the South Park DLC pack which not only gives you new questions but also turns your avatar and the audience into South Park-like characters.

What will attract a lot of people to this game will be the gamerscore. In fact, maxing out all 12 achievements on this game is so easy it is actually really disappointing. The fact that there is no time limit on the questions means that google will be winning people a lot of virtual millions.

Overall, if you like your quiz games then this is well worth picking up as it can be quite an entertaining diversion if just for a couple of rounds. However the disappointing multiplayer and the randomness of the lifelines costs the game a couple of marks.

6.5/10