Old Price Is Right Review

Well, I thought, how bad could they screw up a game show that has been on for literally decades? Oh, how wrong I was.

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I rented this one for my Wii with the hopes that my wife and I would have a lot of fun bidding on things, spinning the "Big Wheel," and playing the Price is Right Games. Sadly, it didn't happen.

Starting the game boots up with the Price is Right music, and I start thinking, "Oh yeah! Bring it on, Bob!" Much to my dismay, there is no voice of the beloved Bob Barker in the game... nor is there the voice of the new host, Drew Carey. Just some run-of-the-mill voice-over actor (no offense, whoever you are) that reads the lines that I WISHED Bob was.

The game starts, and players get to choose between several different avatars to use as their on-screen character. Nothing really of note except that the only African American person looks less than favorably represented, for some reason. Input name, and let the fun begin. The next item up for bid... Actually, this is one of the things that did impress me about the game. They show a full-motion video of the item you have to put a bid on, complete with "The Bob Barker Girls" showing it off. Then it breaks down again. Everyone places a bid, and the winner gets the value of that prize added to their "winnings". Players automatically move on to the first mini-game.

Players get four different games to choose from, I don't remember what they were b/c they all pale in comparison to "Cliff Hangers," which is in the game. The winner of the previous game gets to choose first, then so on down the line until all participants have played a minigame of their choosing. Nothing much more than that. Again, there was FMV, but the video at one point didn't match the item description they were giving me on screen; that's a downer.

Next, we have the Big Wheel spin. You know the drill: Spin the wheel, get the closest to the Dollar that you can without going over, and move on to the Showcase Showdown. Well, the only flaw here is that if only one human player gets closest to the dollar, then the game is over. So even if you don't get the dollar, you move on anyway. . .

Showcase showdown is pretty much the same: watch, bid, and hope. Don't go over and win, come within $250 of the amount and win BOTH. Prizes were shown in the FMV, bids were made, and the game was over... that's it.

Nope, I didn't miss anything. Start all over again if you actually liked playing a really bad version of "America's Favorite Gameshow". I didn't enjoy the first trip (it didn't help that my wife won), so after trying to talk myself into playing again (and losing), I put it back in the envelope and back to the warehouse it went.

This is one of those rare games that makes me very happy that I have a subscription to Gamefly. I don't think I can even recommend this one to the fans of the show that haven't left with good ol' Bobby B.

Cue the sound, ghost of Rod Roddy!!

Bom bom bom ba bom waaaaaaaaaa....