Could be better, could be worse.Believe it or not, there was a time when "Wheel of Fortune" was the God of game shows. Although the show started in the 1970's, it never really became popular until the early 1980's. Throughout the '80s and '90s, millions of viewers tuned in to see "America's Game", but since then its popularity has dwindled slightly. During the height of its popularity, however, the folks at GameTek (a division of Rare, Ltd.) tried to capitalize on "Wheel of Fortune" with video game versions for several home consoles, such as the NES and Sega Genesis.
This game here is GameTek's 1989 arcade version, and overall, it's...well...meh.
The game stays pretty faithful to the show as it was back in the '80s: spin the wheel and try to guess the letters in the word puzzle you're trying to solve. You earn points for consonants, but you must use points to purchase vowels. If you solve the puzzle, you keep the points you earned for that round, and each total is added to your final score. The player with the most points wins.
So what's good about this version? Well, the music and sound effects are pretty decent. You get the audience chanting "WHEEL...OF...FORTUNE" on the title screen and the beginning of the game, and also a dance version of the show's old theme song (entitled "Changing Keys"), as well as the fanfare that plays when you solve the puzzle correctly. They even included the dinging sound when a letter lights up on the board.
The game offers 2 difficulty settings: Challenger and Champion. If you're not good with hangman-style word games, Challenger would be great to start out with. If you're a "Wheel of Fortune" nut, Champion is right up your alley.
Now what's WRONG with this version? Well, for starters, the graphics could have been better. For starters, Vanna White doesn't look or sound like herself. Her movements are slow and jerky, unlike the swift, elegant Vanna we all know and love. Also, she only TOUCHES the board to reveal the letters, rather than turn them (the touchscreen puzzle board that's currently featured on the show today wasn't introduced until 1996...perhaps this game was a little ahead of its time in that sense?). As she announces whose turn it is, you'll notice Vanna's voice isn't close to what she sounds like in real life.
The puzzles themselves have no varying degrees of difficulty. I found "Challenger" mode to be too easy, but "Champion" mode to be too difficult. Also, you don't get very much time to select letters, especially when trying to solve the puzzle.
You have 3 lives in this game, too. If you guess a wrong letter, solve the puzzle incorrectly, or land on a "Lose a Turn" or "Bankrupt" wedge, you lose 1 life. Lose all three, and you get a chance to continue if you put in more quarters. I know this is nitpicking, but I just find the lives thing to be somewhat useless, since such a thing doesn't exist in the home versions of the game, or the show itself. It IS an arcade game, though, so I suppose its appropriate.
However, my biggest complaint is the game play. Now before I continue, I will say that I do know this is an issue due to playing the game on an emulator. The original arcade cabinet had a small wheel where a joystick would normally be.
The wheel was speed-sensitive; depending on how fast you spun it would depend on how fast the wheel spun in the game. You would also rotate the wheel to highlight the letter you wish to select. Since this game is being played on a keyboard, you might run into some issues. The wheel will only spin at one set speed as a result, and trying to select your letters might be a little tedious, especially when trying to solve the puzzle under the strict time limit.
So in conclusion, this game isn't terrible, but it's not that good. I'm sure it'd probably be more fun to play the actual cabinet instead of an emulated version on the computer. My suggestion is if you want to play a "Wheel of Fortune" video game, stick to the home console versions.
Graphics
5 Sound
8 Addictive
7 Depth
5 Difficulty
5
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