Are You Smarter than a 10 Year Old? 2010

I was an arrogant little swine when I was 10. I was pretty good at all the subjects, which instilled in me the sense that I was some kind of genius who belonged in a higher year.

Of course, as I grew older I realised what the true child prodigies of this world were doing - writing concertos and curing diseases. It turned out I was merely slightly above average.

Still, a hint of the old arrogance emerged when I saw the title of this game. ‘Are You Smarter than a 10 Year Old?’ Damn right I am, chump! First question: Where is the city of Kochi? Ah…

Smarty pants

These questions are put to you as you ascend a familiar money ladder in a quiz show-like format. Of course, that’s because this is based on a quiz show.

It’s pretty simple - you pick an assistant from a pack of five kids, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. And by the latter I mean subjects such as Maths or Science as opposed to bladder control or reaction to orange squash.

Then you pick a subject to answer a question on, such as English or UK Geography. These questions are apparently based on actual school syllabuses, so most of them are fairly simple to answer. Even the ones you don’t know are often answerable by simple deduction (it’s a multiple choice affair).

For the odd question that completely stumps you (such as the Kochi one) you can use one of your life lines, which ropes your assistant in to help. You can ‘Peek’ at their answer and then choose to agree, 'Copy’ them outright, or permit them to ‘Save’ you when you muck up.

Must try harder

As I’ve suggested, though, it’s all a bit too simple. There’s only the one mode of play, a single romp through which won’t last you much more than half an hour.

Aside from the odd question that will stump you, there’s not much of a challenge here. Most of the questions are extremely easy for your average adult to answer, simply through having developed the one thing that kids often lack - common sense.

There’s also the fact that very little has changed since we last dropped in on the AYSTATYO? series. In fact, I had to check that I had the correct version when I saw the screenshot of the last one we reviewed back in 2008.

AYSTATYO? 2010, then, is an average student in every respect - it’s not particularly bright, blends into the crowd visually, and you probably won’t remember any of your dealings with it a couple of years down the line.