Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? Make the Grade
Unlike the first game, this one actually does make the grade
Tags: Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? Categories: PC Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Jake McNeill on Nov 12th, 2008
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (title page) | |||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Other | No | ||
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If you spent even a brief time looking over my review of the first game based on TV game show Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? About a year ago, you’ll know I thought it was complete trash. Just about everything they could have done wrong with that game, they did. Any place they could have screwed it up, they did. If it was any more awful, I suspect Jeff Foxworthy would have sued the game’s makers. Have I made myself clear?
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Well, a year later we’re getting a sequel of sorts, and while it’s still not a particularly spectacular title, it is far and away an improvement on its predecessor. In fact, virtually every issue I had with the original has been improved on. To sum it up, I wouldn’t have wished the original game on my worst enemy, but I can certainly recommend Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? Make the Grade to fans of the TV show.
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In fact, this time around, the game’s biggest flaw is probably the show it’s based on. Yes, the questions are still unrealistically hard for the grade level they’re supposed to represent – I certainly don’t remember learning about the names of different types of seaweed and where they’re located geographically in grade school. However, while the premise of the show may be weak, it’s finally translated to a decent game here.
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Issues that have been rectified from the first game include the lengthy and unskippable cutscenes (you can skip all cutscenes but “reaction shots” after answering a question now), stale banter from Foxworthy (fixed mainly by keeping his yapping to a minimum outside of skippable cutscenes), horrible graphics (Make the Grade won’t win any beauty contests, but it looks much, much better than the first game), poorly proofread questions (haven’t seen any typos or issues like that so far), repeat questions (this game boasts 6,000 questions), and a game structure that emphasizes taking on the harder questions first and restarting upon failure (fixed by revealing each kid’s strengths only after they’re chosen). What’s more, they’ve taken an extra step and added a few multiplayer modes, including a spelling bee, as well as a character-creation utility.
Again, nothing on show here is really shocking or even impressive. The graphics are still somewhat lackluster, the pacing could still do with some extra speed, and Foxworthy is still horrendously unfunny for someone who is supposed to be a professional stand-up comic, but at least this time it works.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
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+ It’s a heck of a lot better than the first game + Will satisfy fans of the show + Extra included games and multiplayer modes are a nice addition |
7.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
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- These questions still seem a lot more advanced than grade school - Graphically underwhelming - Pacing still slow - Wasn’t Jeff Foxworthy funny once? |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? Make the Grade is a decent but unspectacular videogame version of the show. However, it’s much, much better than the horrible piece of dung that the first game was. | |
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Tags: Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
Posted by Jake McNeill on Nov 12th, 2008 and is filed under PC Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
