Ok, a quick brain tickler for you wannabe geniuses out there:
Question 1) when was Trivial Pursuit invented?
2) How many copies of the game have been sold by 2015?
3) How many editions of the classic game have there been since the game was launched?
Got you stumped? Well, welcome to the world of trivia and the head scratching , chin stroking world of Trivial Pursuit Live.
Not so long ago the thought of hunkering down on the floor and playing a board game until the wee hours had about as much appeal as watching old people eat. But over recent years a number of classic board games have been dusted down, given a new lease of life and a fresh lick of paint for the digital age. The most notable of these has been board game behemoth, Monopoly, which was relaunched to much critical acclaim earlier this year. 
Following hard on the heels of Monopoly’s success, Ubisoft and Hasbro have set their sights on Trivial Pursuit, arguably the world’s most popular board game. Rather than simply recreating a board on your screen Hasbro and Ubisoft have opted instead to transform Trivial Pursuit into a TV game show style presentation not unlike the hugely popular Buzz on the PS3. And it works. Boy, it works well. Trivial Pursuit Live offers a host of reinvented question formats, customizable game lengths and a variety of game rounds and rules.
As in the board game version, players compete for wedges by answering questions on a number of subjects. However in Ubisoft and Hasbro’s re-imagining of Trivial Pursuit, gamers can create their own characters and pit them head to head against friends in the same room or strangers on line. Excellent. As in the original offering, you’ll need to know everything from ancient history and nature, to video games and modern literature if you want to stand a chance of winning the game. Luckily, there’s a vast library of questions on offer and, during a week of almost non-stop play, we only encountered the odd question being repeated once.
It’s worth noting that although the questions in Trivial Pursuit Live vary in difficulty they are, on the whole, easier than the brain-melting challenges in the original board game. But it’s fair to say this is a thinking game so Call of Duty fanboys (and girls – Editor) need not apply.
Ubisoft and Hasbro’s presentation skills are second to none when it comes to creating engaging, entertaining and memorable gaming experiences. And Trivial Pursuit Live is no exception. The graphics on the Xbox One version of the game are slick and highly polished and the audio does a great job of re-creating that razzmatazz games show feel. All it lacked was a Jason Donovan-style presenter to top it off. An opportunity here for some DLC perhaps? And while the developers are tinkering under the hood, how about the opportunity for players to create their own questions for others to play? Now there’s a thought….
Playing ether the 3 or 5 round games in Trivial Pursuit can be a tense teeth gnashing affairs as you try to collect your six wedges and win the game. But whether you’re a genius at general knowledge or just a casual gamer looking for something fun and challenging to play, Trivial Pursuit Live is definitely worth adding to your gaming library. Highly recommended by The Sussex Newspaper team.
Oh , and for anyone still wondering about those three questions at the start of the review:
Question 1) Trivial Pursuit was conceived on December 15, 1979 by Chris Haney and Scott Abbott. Haney was a picture editor at the Montreal Gazette, and Abbott was a sports journalist for The Canadian Press. The friends were playing a game of Scrabble and drinking beer when they decided to invent their own game.
2) More than 100 million copies of the game had been sold in 26 countries and in at least 17 languages, with estimated sales of $2 billion.
3) There have been more than 50 special editions of Trivial Pursuit, including:
Star Wars Classic Trilogy Collector’s Edition
Lord of the Rings Movie Trilogy Edition
The Rolling Stones Edition
Power Rangers 20th Anniversary Edition
Baby Boomer Edition
Trivial Pursuit Mini Pack – Hollywood Flicks
Trivial Pursuit – Country Music
So now you know…..
8 out of 10
