Warning: here on GeekDad, we run mostly positive reviews of things. Indeed, usually when we are sent things, there’s something positive to be said about them, and we’ll do our best to find it in a fair and balanced manner. But we are honest, too, and in the name of editorial honesty, when we receive a product that is sub-par, we need to write about it as well. This is one of those times.
There is a game show on television called “Minute to Win It,” hosted by Food Network’s Guy Fieri. I hear that it is a reasonably popular game show, where contestants come on and endeavor to complete wacky tasks like maneuvering eggs around a stage with the wind generated by flapping a pizza box, or sorting peanut M&Ms by color, all in under a minute, to win money. I have watched exactly one episode of the show, as research for this review. It’s mostly harmless.
And now, there is a video game for the Wii based on the show. It is not mostly harmless.
It is another stab at a series of minigames for families or parties on the Wii. It endeavors to recreate the games from the show, but has players perform them using the Wii controllers. Here are the takeaways my family experienced after playing the game:
- The controller motions are so quickly demonstrated, it’s often hard or impossible to understand what you’re supposed to do in any given game.
- The mapping of motions from controllers to game is inaccurate and has real lag, which makes actually performing the tasks nearly impossible.
- The animated characters one plays as in the game (you cannot use your Miis) strange, even mildly deranged.
- The lip-syncing of the recorded bits of Guy Fieri’s voice to his animated character is really poor.
In the opinion of myself and my family, this is not a good game, and I can’t recommend it to anyone, even if you like the game show.
Editorial Note: we received a free review copy of this game for evaluation. You don’t know how hard it is to refrain from another cheap shot here.
