Review: Smarty Pants (Wii)

The popularity of board games and trivia continues to thrive in the digital age, with releases such as ‘Buzz’ and ‘Scene It’ attracting those who would normally shun video games.   Smarty Pants is the first attempt to tap into that market for the widespread Nintendo Wii demographic, Gamestyle is surprised that it’s taken until now for a developer to attempt such a move.

Smarty Pants is an original creation from EA Los Angeles, which although owing a debt to many of the popular board games of bygone years, manages to provide an original take on the genre.   As with most Electronic Arts releases on the Wii, the implementation of the Wii Remote is spot on with no noticeable issues.   Admittedly the remote does not have much to do in the scheme of things (acting only as an elaborate buzzer), but the developer has tried to inject various actions beyond merely a test of speed once a question is revealed.

These actions range from spinning the wheel that determines the category of question.  You can nudge the wheel a certain amount of times (by flicking the remote) to move onto preferred topics.  Then there are the series of cards on offer that allow the owner to do various things from steeling a question, ramping up the difficulty, obtaining more time or removing a wrong answer.  The most bizarre inclusion is the Double Points Dance, where you are expected to dance around the living room like a lunatic in the quest for a multiplier.   All the cards are implemented with a button press that leads to a mini-game, and these work well enough, without ever being a real test of skill or taking Smarty Pants away from its trivia roots.   Cost may be an issue some, as for four players you will require four remotes (unlike Scene It on the Xbox 360 which comes bundled with 4 controllers), but at least the nunchuck is not involved.

Subtitled ‘trivia fun for everyone’ its good to see that this approach has been taken via the initial player details, where your age is an important factor.   The aim is that you can play as a family without the detrimental effects of an unfair pack as seen in Trivial Pursuit.  If you wish to keep your age a secret then you can skip this but will receive a default adult rating – why not just lie like most people out on the town at weekends?  While some bonus rounds are open questions to the floor, Smarty Pants is designed so to enable the game to control what questions are being directed at you.  The Achilles heel to such an approach is the perception that you grow in knowledge as you age.  Amidst Gamestyle’s circle of friends the exact opposite could be argued with the ravages of life or Tennents inhibiting trivia performance.     

The ability to customise further is offered with options allowing you to tailor the length of the game (although Gamestyle tended romp in ahead of the outlined times) and whether you require a solo, family or friends format.   The questions are divided into categories such as Arts & Literature, The World, Sports & Games, TV & Film, The UK, Music, Food & Drink and finally Science & Nature.  It is a comprehensive and varied list, with the inclusion of the UK category being appreciated.  When a question is revealed, you have four potential answers listed, with points being awarded on either a countdown or wager basis.

Visually Smarty Pants was never going to be technical demo however it does possess that colourful charm, concise layout and universal appeal that we’ve seen previously in other EA Wii releases.   A visible barometer of performance is the number of questions on offer, which is claimed to be in excess of 20,000.  This is a commendable figure when pitched against current board games that offer little more than a few thousand.  Yet this is not a straightforward comparison given the way Smarty Pants tailors your questions on your age in the Friends mode, thereby cutting down the field of potential questions you may experience.  In saying this however, despite of significant playtime Gamestyle cannot recall facing the same question twice.   Also included is the option not to reveal the answer, extending the lifespan even further.

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.  In this respect it will experience a similar fate to those of the board games we already own.   As an entertainment tool alongside Wii Sports it makes for an enjoyable social occasion and will go down extremely well throughout homes across the country.   Just whether you need another expensive board game is something only you can decide, but the appeal and functionality for all ages is Smarty’s trump card.

Rating: 6 / 10

Words by Jason Julier