Jeopardy! Sports Edition

Genre: Game Show Developer: Park Place Productions Publisher: GameTek Players: 1-3 Released: 1994

There are some things in life that will never get old: playing Genesis, drinking a beer on the weekend, and stopping everything in your life to watch Jeopardy! at 7:30. Everyone I know really just loves to watch the Jep, and of course, somewhere down the line someone had to make a video game about it. It all started with the NES version, which of course was followed up by numerous “now with more (sodium) questions! Sweet Jesus!’ versions for NES and even some weird four-player Super Jeopardy! game that was actually pretty fun, but the host didn’t look anything at all like Alex Trebek.

Naturally, there had to be a Genesis version. Not once have I mentioned GameTek yet, though they were the people who published the majority of these game releases. The Genesis version’s box of the original looks just like the Wheel of Fortune/American Gladiator boxes of the same time span. I don’t know if that was on purpose. Anyway, I digress. For one reason or another, there was a sports version that was released in 1993.

You can really sum up this entire review in one sentence: It’s Jeopardy! with sports answers instead of normal ones. But, since I am long winded and like to talk about the Sega games I like, you’re going to get a longer review of this game. Okay, so you turn the game on, and it is clear that this is exactly the same as the original Jeopardy! released on the Genesis. When you get through the intro screens and choose your character, you get a choice between a token white guy basketball player, golfer, black guy baseball player or white lady tennis player or ice skater who looks like she’s holding onto the blade of the skate.

Anyway, you pick your buzzer button and you go on to play. The game slides through each of the categories, then allows you to change them if you want. My friends and I always agree that you have to pay $1000 in game money to be the guy that presses C. You can play by yourself, with two friends (on two game pads), or against one or two computer players.

JS!E is very straightforward and from my experiences, fairly easy to beat the computer. Most of the games I have played start out with me getting a big lead, only to have one or both computer players come back within reach. The graphics are pretty good overall. Everything is presented clearly, but sometimes the categories are awkwardly contracted and some of the letters in the answers are blurry.

The voices are very good, and include such examples as “you are correct!” and “do you know the correct response?” are some of the clearest I’ve heard on the Genesis. When a player gets a question correct, their eyes light up and they “smile” and vice versa if they get one wrong. It’s as straight forward as that. The whole game is pretty much straight forward.

The one thing I have against this version though, is that some of the answers and categories are pretty dated, especially the ones about the recent Olympics at the time (’92 and maybe ’94). This game is certainly not an easier version of regular Jeopardy! either. Overall, It’s a pretty decent play, but I hope that you didn’t pay full price for it back in the day. $50 bucks for this game is highway robbery, though this is a pretty good way to spend an afternoon.