Football Genius: The Ultimate Quiz Review

Game: Football Genius: The Ultimate Quiz

Developer: I-Imagine Interactive

Publisher: RTL Sports

Available On: Xbox Live Arcade

With the World Cup in full effect, the world has gone rather football crazy. Despite lacklustre performances from some of the big teams (okay okay…..England) people the world over are getting the beers in, throwing another shrimp on the barbie (BBQ, not the childs toy!) and any number of other stereotypical pastimes enjoyed during the football.

Games wise though, after 2010 FIFA World Cup was released (and reviewed by God is a Geek) there’s not been much to shout about. Football Genius The Ultimate Quiz aim to fills that gap with a game that feels as though it was designed to be played pre-match, at half time and after the actual football is over.

As a quiz game it seems to follow a similar mould to other games like “Buzz” or “Scene It?” in that it has a shorter version of the quiz (half time) and the standard full version (full time) but neither outstay their welcome. Both modes have the same sections, for example; simple question and answer sections, guess the player/team (a pixelated image that slowly reveals itself), a section where there is a football rotating with faces on it, a name appears and you “buzz in” when you think the picture matches the name. There are more than just those few though of course, in one you’ll get a picture of a team and have specific questions asked about that picture. One disappointing factor was in the pixelated guess person round whereby the question was “Who is this lady married to?” which, in this reviewers humble opinion, has absolutely nothing to do with the sport whatsoever, but maybe I’m just old fashioned!

You can play the game solo to just get a high score or unlock achievements, but up to 4 people can play locally and you can take the game online and play over Xbox LIVE. Sadly though, smaller titles such as these are just not supported by the community and I found it near impossible to get a game online. Both Avatar’s and Xbox LIVE Vision Camera are supported so you can see who you are playing if you do manage to get a game though.

The questions are varied and there were no repeats visible, though there were a few flaws like a picture used for one round was then an answer to a question in the next round. Upon loading the game you are told that the questions are set to reflect your region settings, but that can be changed in the options. It’s a nice touch though, to feel that the game is asking me questions I might know, though some of the questions pose a threat to people who aren’t quite a “football genius”.

The presentation to the game is rather nicely done, colourful and all the images used for questions and answers seem very crisp and clear. It would appear you can also use the “Scene It?” buzzer controllers if you so wish, though they were not tested in this review.

The audio is rather “functional” in that it does nothing spectacular. You can choose a buzzer sound, including the (perhaps) dreaded Vuvuzela and there are little pieces of music that sound slightly low budget and more than a little cheesy.

Football Genius The Ultimate Quiz does what it says on the tin, it is a well designed, well presented quiz game for football fans. It’s nothing spectacular but given the genre it’s fair to say that there isn’t much more that could really be done with it and despite feeling as though it’s aimed at a certain demographic, the game is a fun experience with friends, especially given the aforementioned World Cup that is taking place.

There are 3,500 questions but that isn’t as many as you think if you play the game a lot and how quickly rounds pass by, but it should be plenty for someone with a casual interest in playing the game. Personally, I think of myself as reasonably knowledgable of the sport therefore I had few problems getting most questions right, but there are a few tricky ones and it’s fair to say you need to know your football if you are to invest in this title.

Priced at 400 Microsoft points there’s absolutely no reason not to give this title a go if you are after a quiz game (with relatively easy achievements…..never understimate the draw of achievements!) about football to enjoy at your leisure. The only drawback aside from the audio is that the game itself is fairly quick to blast through and like with any other quiz game, repeated play sessions will eventually end up with repeated questions.