Developer(s): Accent Media Productions
Publisher: Philips Interactive Media
Released: 1994
The Joker’s Wild has aired on and off in various iterations since the early 70s (the most recent revival was hosted by Snoop Dogg), but by the time this video game adaptation was released, it was in an “off” phase, and had been for three years. Somewhat interestingly, they recruited Wink Martindale, famous for hosting game shows like Tic-Tac-Dough and for being named “Wink Martindale”, to fulfill hosting duties, even though he never hosted the original TV series. He does an admirable job, reading out every single question and even every multiple-choice answer, as well as including little asides and additional “fun facts” as it goes along.
You have a choice of 1-4 players, and there are no computer-controlled players filling in the blanks. At the beginning of the game, five trivia categories are randomly chosen (like Famous Pairs or U.S. History), and in each round you spin a giant slot machine to find out which categories you’ll be able to try on your turn. You then get asked a question, and given four possible answers to choose from. If any of the slots come up with a Joker, you can then also pick from one of the categories you didn’t draw, but it won’t be worth as much money. If you pull multiples of the same category, dollar values go up, and if you get three Jokers, the question will be worth $500, which is also the amount that triggers the end of the round when any player reaches it.
In Round 2, each player gets to choose one of the five trivia categories to be their sole category for the entire round. You then spin and this time there are dollar values in each slot, and all three together are how much the question is worth. If you miss even one question, you’re out, but you get to keep the money you made so far. If you spin and wind up with a Devil, you’re out, and you lose all your Round 2 winnings. The goal is for the player in first to get as much as they can and then choose to stop before ever pulling a Devil, and then for the other players to try to beat their total. If you play alone, it challenges you to get more than $1,500 without busting. Whoever comes out on top goes on to the final round, where they get asked one “Joker’s Challenge” question, worth $500 (though, oddly, it doesn’t add this so-called $500 to your total on the high scores page). All-in-all, even for 1994, this is incredibly low stakes. Like if you’re lucky you might walk away with $2,000 for winning an entire game show. Meanwhile, Wheel of Fortune is out there somewhere sending people to Antigua. Considering this is just a video game, why not goose it up a little bit?
If the two paragraphs I spent describing the game sounded boring, that’s because it is boring. I have never watched an episode of this show, and maybe that’s my failing as a reviewer, but it’s unthinkable to me that people keep bringing this format back in new revivals over decades. The idea that the only thing that happens when you pull a Joker on your turn is that you can choose a different trivia category but for less money is baffling. Can you conceive of anything less “wild” than that? At least there are hundreds of pre-programmed names to choose from that you can make Wink Martindale say, ranging from Xerxes to Lazybones, which is truly about as “wild” as this whole experience gets.
I like answering trivia questions, and if this was just quiz software voiced by Wink Martindale, I would’ve gotten more out of it. The problem with The Joker’s Wild video game is that it’s based on The Joker’s Wild TV show, and the tediousness of sitting through pretending to pull a slot machine between each question, or the constantly stopping to check everyone’s scores, starts to slowly sap all of the fun out of it. Also, the difficulty of the questions varies wildly, and isn’t reflected in the dollar values of the questions, from asking what “haggis” is made from (sheep’s stomach!) to asking what the guy who played Eddie Haskell on Leave It to Beaver did for a living once he got out of acting (who could possibly know or care?). Maybe if you had three people over who were all into the idea, you could have some fun here, but you’d probably be better off playing Trivial Pursuit at your own pace, or maybe even just talking to each other.
Graphics – 7
It looks reasonably like a game show
Sound – 9
Wink Martindale actually does a fantastic job, and I appreciated that he read all the answers out, and not just the questions
Gameplay – 6
It perfectly executes what it’s trying to do, but what it’s trying to do is boring
Value – 6
I never saw a repeat category across a half-dozen games, but I have no idea how many full games anyone could actually manage to play
Reviewer’s Tilt – 5
I really wanted to like this, because I do like trivia generally-speaking, but something about the format made the whole endeavor feel rather tedious
Final Score – 6.2
The CD-i Completionist 