Let me start off with this: I love game shows. I used to play Wheel of Fortune on my cousin’s NES. After that it was Wheel of Fortune for my Super Nintendo, and one of the best parts of getting cable television was getting the Game Show Network. I still go over to my friend’s house to play Jeopardy! on her NES. I’m even going to be spending a day of my Spring Break to go watch The Price is Right before host Bob Barker retires. I’m not saying no to this game because it’s a game show game. I’m saying no because it’s a terrible adaptation of the show.
The game show is basically a quiz to see if you have your finger the pulse of modern society. And normally, it does so pretty well. However the game pulls it off poorly. Sure, the basic structure of the game is preserved, however, the graphics and execution just turns me off to playing the game any longer then I had to. For one thing, the game lacked the show’s hosts. Richard Karn, Louie Anderson, no one. Instead, we have Todd Newton, who has never hosted Family Feud. Second, even if it had a representation of one of the hosts, he would have been unrecognizable. The human models were horrid. The voice acting was also terrible. It was pretty annoying to hear the same question asked 10 times a row without any variation of banter.
On the bright side, after you get past those things, the gameplay felt alot like watching the show. You were given a topic, and you typed in your answer. Pretty straight forward. And the stage and game-related graphics were true to the show. Sound effects, like the all important buzzer, were perfect.
Overall, I’m sad to give this game a minus. But I certainly hope that another Family Feud game is released that deserves the name.