Trivia Throwdown

Review

Trivia Throwdown is a game where you’ll fight and battle your way through mountain challenges using nothing more than the power of your noggin, brought to you by Eclectic City Games.

On the main menu screen, you’ll have the option of playing either Ascent Mode or Two-Player Quick Match. Ascent Mode is a single player game where you make your way through five difficulty levels. These levels are named after mountains, the lowest level mountain is Wutai, then Fuji, Rainier, Kilimanjaro and finally the most difficulty level, Everest. I’m like a blonde looking for a corner in a round room so I started on the lowest mountain of Wutai. If you want to you can choose and play any level at any time in any order you fancy, as each level will save any progress on that level separate to the other levels.

Once you’ve chosen your level, you’ll then have the option of seven different characters to choose from. The characters are Bo, Kenji, (Matt) Damon, Cid, Tyranno, Mr. Jack and Virgil. Next you can choose your opponent from any of the other characters, and once done you’ll be taken to the fight screen. Here you’ll then do battle by selecting a category from three random categories offered to you. You and your opponent will take turns choosing a category and answering questions until there’s a winner. The categories on offer to you are Film & TV, Geography & Politics, Sports, Science & Technology, History, Games, Fine Arts & Literature, General Knowledge and Music.

After a category has been chosen, a question will appear at the top of the screen, and below this is the Timer Bar. At the same time, four possible answers will be shown to you; select the correct answer before the time runs out. The answers are arranged in the centre of the screen below the question and timer, and are in the position as the A, B, X, Y buttons on an Xbox style game pad for ease if using a controller. You can also use the arrow keys or select an answer by using a mouse cursor if you please.

Each of the questions range from one to five points in difficulty, and this will also determine the potential damage (eight to forty health points) for answering a question incorrectly. If both fighters answer incorrectly then the damage will be shared between both players. The categories offered to each fighter will be determined by the performance of each fighter, so correctly answering all questions will raise the difficulty level of the categories and vice-versa.

Upon your turn to choose a category you can may take advantage of a couple power-ups: Refresh and Ante-Up. Selecting Refresh will allow you to replace the categories offered to you if you don’t fancy the look of them. They will be replaced with three new random categories. Ante-Up can be used if you do fancy the look of the categories, and when selected could possibly increase the damage given by fifty percent. However, firstly you’ll need to build up the ante-up bonus; every time you receive fifty points of damage, you’ll gain an ante-up. This is great for when you’re in a pickle and can come in handy in making a comeback.

Each fighter has two Punchback Bonuses, which are two preferred categories which vary depending on the fighter. The Punchback Bonus will kick in when your health falls below thirty-three percent on your turn. You will still be offered three categories but one of them will be one of the two preferred categories for that fighter. You can also deal Combo Damage by dealing damage to your opponent three or more times in a row. If both fighters answer correctly then the combo bonus will remain, although if you answer a question incorrectly, you’ll then lose the combo bonus.

To win you must be the first to claim two wins by reducing your opponent's health to zero. If you win 2-0 you will then be promoted to the next rank (you start on rank ten, then nine, eight, seven etcetera). Sometimes both fighters lose all their health at the same time; if this happens then a Tiebreaker is called. There are four possible outcomes to decide who wins a tiebreaker. A tiebreaker is determined by the Tiebreaker Priority; firstly it will be determined by HP at the time of damage (fighter with the most will win), then Total correct answers (the fighter who correctly answers the most questions wins), then Average correct answer difficulty (the fighter answering the higher difficulty average of questions wins) and then finally by Average speed to answer (fastest fighter to answer correctly wins).

There is a Two-Player Quick Match which can be played from the same computer should you wish to test your knowledge against a family member or friends. This is set up in the same way as you would with playing single player, except for having another player.

On the main menu screen, you can also find Analytics, which will give you some information on your single player stats on each of the category types, the difficulty of the questions, and the number and percentage of correct answers. Also on the main menu is the Wall of Knowledge, where you’ll find your Top Ten Score, Ascent Rank and Date. How to Play can also be found on the main menu screen where it will take you over the basics of the game (it’s easy to pick up).

As the game has been developed in America, there’s going to be quite a few questions from there. The developers have tried to minimise this for non-Americans by allowing you to turn On/Off the American Bias Filter in the options. This won’t remove all questions about America, but it will reduce them for those of us not from the US of A.

There is also an Adult Content Filter in case kids want to play, which will filter subjects like Weapons, Violence, Disasters, Alcohol and Age 17+ Movies, Tv Shows, Music, Games and Books. However, there are No Curse Words, Drug or Sex References - Filtered or Unfiltered in the game.

If you must stop midway through a fight, then you can leave the game and it will save the game at that point ready for you to continue later.

In the options you’ll find Resolution, Auto Advanced Questions On/Off, Full Screen, Graphics Quality, SFX and Music volume sliders. Adult Content Filter, American Bias Filter On/Off.

The game is quite fun to play, whether it’s a quick game or against friends and family in local co-op. There’s plenty of questions in various topics and so far, I haven’t come across the same question twice. If you don’t know much on American history, sports etcetera you can then filter out most of the questions if you want from within the options.

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com!