Family Fortunes
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| Family Fortunes

On TV, Family Fortunes was once quite good. Nowadays it's not, but that's easily attributed to two things - Vernon Kay and its transition into All Star Family Fortunes.

Let's face it, the introduction of neither the boundlessly annoying Vernon or celebrities like Gemma Atkinson and Coleen Nolan and their families is exactly going to enhance a format.

Luckily though, these two things are exactly what Family Fortunes the mobile game doesn't feature. Instead, you just get the Family Fortunes staples - which is basically a load of 'we surveyed 100 people' questions split into two rounds - one played against another (virtual) family and (if you get through that one) the Big Money round which is played against the clock.

You also get to create your own character before beginning the game, which is a nice touch even if it does then get bunged into a random family of misfit types. In terms of presentation, the game does it well, and it also makes as much out of the Family Fortunes format as seems possible.

Unfortunately even when making the most out of it, the phone format it's on limits how true to the TV quiz show Family Fortunes can be. That's because the answers to the questions have had to be turned into multiple choice ones, which ruins the say-the-first-thing-that-comes-into-your-head nature of the quiz.

So, for example you might get the question 'name a part of the body that bends'. In true Family Fortunes style, this question has been asked to 100 people and your job is to guess how those people answered.

But instead of guessing your answers, in this game you're given a list of 15 or so answers of which around half will be correct. Then you simply select which ones you think topped the survey, first in the buzzer round to decide which family plays first, then as your family is asked one by one for an answer (you control everyone's answers within your family).

If you give three wrong answers in a row, control passes to your computer rivals, and if they give one right answer they steal all the points from that question. The first family to 300 points, or the one who has the most points at the end of the round, gets to play the Big Money round.

There's only one other way the game could have worked, and that would have been to text input your own answers. Admittedly that would be a clumsy solution, so the method used is preferable.

There's some skill to picking out not only the correct answers but also the highest scoring ones too, so it's not a bad method, even if it does still somewhat change how the game works.

What doesn't work so well is the Big Money round, which starts well due to the added pressure of a time limit but then goes decidedly downhill when the computer takes over the second member of your family, which means you play no part at all in winning or losing the game.

It also seems like a major oversight that the game's makers haven't included a two-player mode, since Family Fortunes is perfectly suited to it.

Even with both of these downsides taken into consideration, Family Fortunes is still an enjoyable single player game. But it doesn't surpass the majority of the deluge of quiz games out there - it just adds another to their number for quiz show fans to pick up and pass a few hours with.

Family Fortunes

Stylishly presented enough quiz show experience containing all the essentials of the TV show but played in a multiple choice question format. It's entertaining, but could easily be better
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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.