Video Gamer is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Prices subject to change. Learn more
Electronic Arts showed off a new trivia game at this year’s E3 with the working title of Smarty Pants. Quiz games are all the rage at the moment, largely down to the success of Sony’s Buzz! series. The family focus of the Wii means that the system is ripe for a good old fashioned test of general knowledge.
Up to four players compete in more than eight categories to see who’s the smartest player in the group. Choose from categories such as science, US history (presumably to be tailored to each territory), games and more. Once a category is selected, players compete in rounds of three questions each.
To select a category, players must spin a game wheel. The player holds the Wii-mote sideways and holds the A button. While doing this, players rotate the remote as if “cranking” something, or reeling in a fishing line. Release the A button, and the wheel will spin and land on a space.
When playing in family mode, players are asked for the year in which they were born. This is done so that the questions they receive will be something relevant to the time they grew up. So if a player was born in 1982, the questions will come from the ’90s.
In the party mode, the questions are from all decades, something akin to most other trivia games. This mode allows anyone to buzz in to answer a question. Players can also collect various cards when spinning the wheel for a category. These cards allow players to perform various actions, such as eliminating a wrong answer or overriding someone else’s buzz in.
To buzz in to answer a question it’s simply a case of raising the remote up quickly as if raising your hand. To throw out the card, the player simply flicks his wrist, while holding the Wii-mote, as if throwing a real card out onto a table. It’s simple and should be easy for all players to pick-up.
Still in development, Smarty Pants is unlikely to win any Game of the Year awards, but it looks to be good, simple fun for all ages and gamer types. EA hopes to have the game out for holiday 2007 in North America, with a European release still to be determined. Look for more on the game in the coming months.
