Who Wants To Be A Millionaire: 4th Edition

As a mobile game, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is old news since we're now on the fourth instalment. And as it's the TV quiz show's tenth anniversary this year, you'd expect that to be going the same way too, except now it's been elevated to cult status thanks to the film Slumdog Millionaire.

Considering it's such an important time for the show, you might be expecting Glu to really, properly pull something big out of the bag for its fourth edition. Such as putting Chris Tarrant in the game, instead of just having a studio with two empty chairs in the middle of it. Or adding in a few play modes exclusive to the mobile game.

It doesn't though. Presentation-wise, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: 4th Edition is much the same as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: 3rd Edition.

On the upside, that means the game looks very slick and uses the TV show's dramatic theme music. It also means you get a new game packed with new questions of a high enough quality to test any general knowledge freak.

An explanation on how to play Who Wants to Be a Millionaire probably isn't needed. You simply answer 12 consecutive multiple choice questions correctly using your brain (and if available, a mate whose trachea becomes inexplicably irritated every time the right answer is read out by the host).

To help are three 'lifelines' which you can play if you're stuck on a question. In the game, 50:50 and Ask the Audience work much as you'd expect - one takes away two wrong answers for you, and the other asks the fictional audience what they think the answer is (they're usually right).

For Phone a Friend, you get to call a virtual friend who will sometimes give you the right answer, then other times get it completely wrong.

The only part of the game that really differs from the TV programme's format is the opening Fastest Finger First round. On TV, the contestants are up against one another to win the opportunity to play. In the game, you're just against a ticking clock and getting the question wrong loses you bonus points and one or more of your lifelines.

The rest of it is exactly the same (minus the opportunity of winning a million pounds of course). You work your way through the questions and every time you reach one of the goalpost amounts (£1000, £50,000 and £1 million) a cheque is written out in your chosen name with a disembodied pen.

The game's few other touches include the studio audience, which cheers when you get a question right, and some sweeping camera shots of the studio and its (empty) chairs. You'll probably skip all of this to get to the questions, but you've got to hand it to Glu for trying to make the game more dramatic than just a series of question screens.

WWtBaM: 4th Edition doesn't reinvent the format in any way. But then the formula didn't really need it. The questions are intelligent and plentiful and that's really all most people who buy it will want.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire: 4th Edition

Another instalment in the well polished quiz show mobile series that doesn't go the extra mile to offer anything new, like extra game modes, but does offer lots of new questions for general knowledge fans
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Kath Brice
Kath Brice
Kath gave up a job working with animals five years ago to join the world of video game journalism, which now sees her running our DS section. With so many male work colleagues, many have asked if she notices any difference.