Americans, eh? Always with the knock offs. From the radio to the television, we've always had something of a sibling rivalry going on - and when it comes to creating great TV personalities, it's been no different. While the Americans may have initially got the upper hand with Conan, Letterman, and Leno, we British fought back with a secret weapon of our own - a weapon called Keith Chegwin.
And Cheggers struck hard. Clearly in a state of disarray at our blatantly better presenter, the Americans were stunned. Stumbling about in a blind panic, they were left with no choice but to resort to extreme measures, as they turned to a Chinese factory to order a cheap Cheggers knock off - and brought him in to host the US edition of Wheel of Fortune. They called him Pat Sajak, which looks like it should spell something naughty backwards, but for all intents and purposes, he's Keith Chegwin with a different voice.
Yep, that's Cheggers.
And Keith Pat's your host for Wheel of Fortune, the new Wii game based around the hit US (AND UK) TV series, which we haven't seen in years. If you've seen the show, you'll instantly be at home with the format here - but even if you haven't, it's nice and easy to pick up and play. Taking it in turns to spin a wheel, you'll be prompted to choose a letter, which you think will appear in a phrase - kind of like a TV version of hangman. Guess correctly, and not only will you win the value you rolled for every time that letter appears in the phrase, but they'll also rotate every panel on which your letter appears in the phrase, helping you get one step closer to eventually guessing, and solving the puzzle. The catch, of course, is that you're not allowed to guess at vowels - for those, you have to purchase them, using some of your hard earned winnings. And if you can't guess it correctly after that, you've made it a lot easier for your opponents.
And, in case you've ever sat at home, shouting at your TV at the clueless contestants, it's honestly not as easy as it sounds. All you're given to go by is a clue, and, unfortunately, the "clue" often isn't much of one. For example, "Event", was our clue, and the phrase we had to guess was "Candlelit Dinner", while "Thing" was a clue for "Paper Plates and Plastic Cups". More specific hints would have gone a long way to at least getting you on the right tracks, but sadly, there's no such luck here.
We guess it's an "O" that comes after the T, but other than that, we're stumped.
Thankfully, many of the puzzles are guessable, and when you're playing in multiplayer - which, lets face it, is how the game's meant to be played, there's no threat of the computer players getting there first. With a pair of equally clueless friends (or more if you fancy splitting into teams), Wheel of Fortune is a guaranteed laugh, as you all make poor guesses, end up landing on bankrupt when you spin the wheel, and generally fumble your way towards victory, taunting each other's Miis as you go.
If anything, Wheel of Fortune's biggest flaw is that it sticks too closely to the TV license. With a maximum of three players at any one time, you'll often find yourself splitting into teams more often than you'd like, and one extra player probably wouldn't have been that hard to add.
But even if it doesn't have that many modes, and there are a few Americanisms in with the phrases you have to guess, Wheel of Fortune is still a lot of fun, with its cheesy TV presentation. And with this being part of THQ's Great Games, Great Value range, you can currently find it for less than £10 - and at that price, you can do a lot worse.
Format Reviewed: Nintendo Wii
