Let's make this quick. The game uses the current format, right down to a 5th round "sudden death." Todd Newton does the voice over for the host. You can customize your family with names, skin tones, clothes, accessories, etc.
One thing that makes this unique from other game show games are a video game staple: unlockables. By conquering various goals you can obtain new clothes/accessories for the family (worthless) or unlock up to 4 sets from "Family Feud" past. The last Karn set is given to you, and I can confirm the Combs and Dawson set among two you can get.
Now, the "fun." The rest of this contains spoilers to questions & answers, so discretion advised and all of that.
On the question "name something that beeps to alarm you" typing "smoke detector" did not turn over the "smoke alarm" card. Alarm clock was number 2, "Alarm" by itself was number 5. Pager & Cell Phone counted as two separate answers.
Speaking of separate answers, I think the developers got the raw survey data and failed to do quality control on it. "Name a section of the newspaper kids don't read" featured business, finances and stocks as three different answers.
"Name a famous tennis player" had these answers verbatim on the tiles: "Agassi, Ashe, Venus, Sampras, Serena, Navitralova."
Playing "name a famous Dolly" I typed in "Parton" and the card turned over to say "Dolly Parton." I typed in "Dolly Madison" and the card "Madison" flipped over. I struck out fast, because the remaining three answers were Barbie, Cabbage Patch Kids & Chuckie. Similarly on "name a popular swimming stroke" I said "breaststroke" and "breast" turned over. I said "back" and got a strike, only to find at the end of the round that "back stroke" was on the board.
"Name a game played at a kids party." Trying to appeal to the game's whacked sensabilities, and since the entire phrase "pin the tail on the donkey" wouldn't fit in the input, I tried "pin tail donkey," "tail on donkey" and other combos to no success. The number 1 answer (worth 60-70 points mind you) read "tail/donkey."
"Name a game show that's been around years" (sic). "The Dating Game" and "The Newlywed Game" strikes? "Dating Game" and "Newlywed" on the board. Ahhhh. "Love Connect." one of the answers? Maybe they're actually making up the surveys.
With such a feat against me, I let questions like "name something people say about money" slide by. Even if I could venture a guess as to the direction of that question (it's the root of all evil? you can't have enough of it?), there'd be no way to guess how the game would judge my answers. Questions like "a downside about eating peanut butter" got ignored by me for the same reasons.
The set renders are wonderful - the actual stuff that matters, i.e. the board, is entirely inconsistent in readable fonts, especially in fast money. I can't confirm what the unlocked sets look like beyond the Dawson one for a very odd and angering reason. It takes $100,000 to unlock one of the sets, something that requires you to play continually without quitting until you accrue $100,000 from Fast Money. After winning $80,000, the game simply failed to offer a chance to play again and went to the menu. Twice.
Roughly 5 people I've found, through tech support boards and my own acquaintances, are having trouble running this game - it crashes before it can even launch. I've seen no common trait between them that would be the root of the problem; and nobody on the boards has yet found a fix.
Should mention also...the game does not reveal the remaining answers on the last question in a game. It does include the rule where if two answers are tied at the faceoff, the faster one is the winner. Except, if one of these answers is placed under the number one card, it wins the faceoff, regardless of it coming first or second. Even though Todd says "we give you $5 for every point" the game awards your family $1 for every point scored in Fast Money.
It retails for $20, and I found copies at several EB Games locations. The game features online play - I have yet to see a single person in the online section.
-Jason
