Despite their growing popularity on other consoles, there has been to date, very few top quality quiz games for the Nintendo Switch. Spotting what has the potential to be quite a lucrative gap in the market, Funbox Media, those of “The Cube” and “Horizon Shift ‘81” fame, have produced geography brain teaser, World Quiz on the Switch.
From the moment you switch World Quiz on, it’s clear to see that a lot of thought has gone into this title. Funbox Media have set themselves the challenging goal of making learning geography fun and accessible. And they’ve achieved this in spades. World Quiz offers you the chance to play on three levels; easy, normal and hard. The question types range from countries, flags, world food and even people. All in all, there’s a hefty 24 categories to choose from, which pretty much guarantees that you’ll be playing this game for several months before you’ve even begun to scratch its surface. No matter which category you choose, the question and answer format is the same. You’ll generally be shown a picture or asked a question about it. Rather than opting for the multiple choice format, you’ll be tasked with spelling out your answers using the selection of letters on offer. This is both a strength and a weakness for World Quiz. In some cases, you can work out the answers simply by thinking of the letters on offer as an anagram of a word. On the other hand, if you do know the answer, there’s sometimes a danger that you simply don’t know how to spell it.
Should you find yourself scratching your head over a question, there are three types of hints that will point you in the right direction. You can fill in and lock on a correct letter, check filled letters or – if you’re really stuck – fill in the whole word and move on to the next question. These hints are, however, limited in supply and should be used only when absolutely necessary. World Quiz comes with an element of urgency as there’s a timer on the right hand side of your screen. Ponder too long, and the timer runs out, you get a ‘Times up’ message alongside the option to start the level again from the beginning. Mercifully, once you’ve restarted, the questions are the same – so you’ll have a bit more time to think about the last brain-melter that threw you.
After a week or so of road testing World Quiz, I can honestly say that I’ve learnt quite a lot about geography. A great quiz game isn’t designed to catch you out. Rather its goal is (and should always be) to test your knowledge and allow you to add to it. And World Quiz does this extremely well. Visually World Quiz is a polished and slick offering. The interface is intuitive and the controls are simple to master. I initially played this on the TV using the joy cons as a pointer. Later I found playing the game in mobile mode with my fingers spelling out the answers was just as easy. Excellent.
Audio-wise there’s very little on offer. You have the option to toggle the ambient music on or off but not change it. A small sacrifice for what is otherwise a very worthy title.
For anyone who has more than a nodding acquaintance with geography, World Quiz’s hard mode will be an obvious starting point. For us lesser mortals, the ‘Normal’ level offers more than enough of a challenge.
If we had any gripes with World Quiz, it’s the noticeable absence of a multiplayer mode and a leaderboard so you can bench mark your progress with your mates. Other than that minor niggle, World Quiz is a fun and engaging quiz game that will suit anyone with even a passing interest in geography. Highly recommended.
9 out of 10
