Football Trivia

If it's true that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Celador (the makers of Who wants to be a Millionaire?) should be feeling overwhelmed by the attention being lavished upon them in Football Trivia. The game is so similar that you can almost imagine Chris Tarrant delivering the questions, although if you're thinking of it Celador, we'd suggest substituting Des Lynam!

In Gameloft's Football Trivia you have to answer a series of 16 questions, one for each match in order to progress to the next stage. For each stage completed you also win fame points in increasingly high denominations. Get a question wrong and you lose them all, unless you've reached one of the secure stages where your accumulated points up to that time are 'safe' (of course, we don't want to give you that...). Each question has four possible answers and you have 30 seconds to select the correct one. If you're not sure of the answer there are 3 help options: ask the fans (get 4 opinions, with majority usually right), ask the coach (who nominates what is almost always the correct answer) and coin toss which takes away 2 wrong answers.

So far, so familiar then. There are a few interesting additions, however. When you get past the second round of matches you get an extra 'help' option that allows you to chose a penalty shoot-out rather than answer the question. This kicks-off a fun little mini-game where you direct shots on goal and try to save your opponent's in order to pass to the next round. Also, should you get a question wrong at any point, you'll be awarded an extra go, courtesy of the football federation (ahh, so that's what the FA do!). You're also playing for trophies, of which there are 3 to be won (national, European and world) with the next in line being unlocked when you complete the first.

Ultimately of course, it's the questions that really matter in a quiz game and in this department Football Trivia puts in a decidedly mid-table performance. Whilst the nature of the trivia teasers seems pretty varied in the first few games, mixing up facts about individual players, club records and nicknames, with the results of specific matches and visual posers based on team kits, patterns soon emerge based around a handful of players (Rio Ferdinand and Figo had 3 questions each in successive games) or particular topics (e.g. we were asked in the quarter finals what is Liverpool's nickname – The Reds, and in the semis What is Chelsea's nickname – The Blues). What's more, some of the 'technical' questions seem out of place. Whilst it's likely that football fans might know the exact length of a regulation pitch or height of the goalposts, it can't be assumed that any know the Polish word for Football.

More worrying than either of these are the niggling doubts about the correctness of some of the questions. Whilst some feel overly ambiguous (for example, "What is the world's most popular official competition?" Popular how? Watched on TV, supported at games, most loved?) others are downright wrong. We are told that Maradona's official position is midfield by Football Trivia, whilst the official Roy of the Rovers hall of fame site confirms that, as we'd answered, that he was in fact a forward. There aren't enough of these mishaps to totally undermine the authority of the game or ruin your enjoyment but combine these niggles with the low-key presentation (the menu screens are slick enough, but where are the pictures of footballers, trophies and stadia?) and it significantly lowers the transfer value.