It's such a simple, inspired idea. Themed Blockbusters. However, while football is a good contemporary theme to begin a potentially virile new franchise with, it also leans a little toward the niche genre to make it a 'must have'.
Naturally Blockbusters Football Edition plays just as you'd expect Blockbusters to, only with soccer-centric questions. The imagination of those questions does go beyond deciphering the names of certain players and teams, fortunately, and the range of knowledge an aspiring Gold Runner will need should test fans of the sport quite suitably.
The actual Blockbuster game mechanics are the real test, of course. And as this isn't the developer's first foray into the classic Bob Holness quiz, the system seems to have been adequately refined.
Having done away with the 'two-versus-one' concept we saw on the TV all those years ago, developer Spacehopper has simplified the quick-fire answering function – which is effortlessly achieved by hitting the '5' key. A correct answer wins you the segment, a wrong one passes it to the opponent.
This is all very Blockbusters and exactly what players would expect, but it's the couple of small tweaks to the overall quiz mechanics – provided by different modes of play – that help to partially lift this game out of the doldrums, where the series has languished so far.
A two-player versus mode is possibly its most entertaining feature, requiring two people to keep a finger on the phone and racing to hit the buzzer first.
Another significant improvement over the standard Blockbusters gameplay is the Challenge mode. Returning to a one-player game, you're pitted against increasingly knowledgeable and quick-fingered opponents, which keeps the challenge level charged up.
The more interesting quirk is the way in which the game board is used. Winning a square grants a certain number of seconds in which to complete the Gold Run later on, so grabbing as many segments of the game board as possible before completing a winning line is very desirable.
Should the opponent answer correctly, that particular segment will then be blocked not only during the current game, but also during the Gold Run. This extra dimension to nailing the questions adds a much needed tension. You don't just barge through to the end using brute general knowledge. You have to use strategy too.
The reduced range of questions does help this themed edition overcome the rather obtuse and limited general knowledge range found in the standard game. But, of course, they also limit the game's interest to sporting fans only, and even avid Blockbusters fans won't gleam much satisfaction if they're not also soccer fanatics.
It's really up to you to decide if a football quiz is a good thing or a limited thing, but if by chance you're in the market for a good soccer quiz with a decent range of questions, there's little to compete with Blockbusters Football Edition.
If, however, you're not in such a market, you might be better off resorting to the standard edition.
Blockbusters Football Edition
Limited of scope but more playable than your ordinary quiz, football fans could uncover an hour or two of self-indulgence right here
Spanner Spencer
Yes. Spanner's his real name, and he's already heard that joke you just thought of. Although Spanner's not very good, he's quite fast, and that seems to be enough to keep him in a regular supply of free games and away from the depressing world of real work.