Deal Or No Deal

Say what you like about TV's Noel Edmonds – and millions of people have – but he's made a storming comeback in the last year with his quiz show Deal Or No Deal.

It's been getting the same amount of praise and hype as Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? and The Weakest Link did in their heyday, even winning over those of us who still can't forgive Noel for inflicting Mr Blobby on us in our vulnerable childhood days.

In one sense, Deal Or No Deal is a no-brainer for a mobile game version. After all, both the quiz shows named above have already come to phones, with WWTBAM selling more than a million downloads here in Europe.

But on the other hand, how can this particular quiz show work on mobile, when on TV it's so dependent on the psychology and the relationships between the contestants – neither of which can currently be replicated on a handset? The virtual Banker can't see if you're sweating or salivating, and you can't pick boxes based on the fact that you think Maureen's looking particularly lucky today. It shouldn't work.

That Deal Or No Deal does work, kind of, on mobile, is credit both to the format itself, and to Gameloft.

First things first, though. In case you've not seen the TV show, it's all about the boxes. Exactly 22 identical sealed red boxes, inside each of which is a cash sum of between one penny and £250,000.

You choose a box at the start of the game, and then have to open the others, aiming to discover only low amounts. Every few boxes, Noel picks up the phone to a mysterious Banker, who makes you an offer for your box. You can Deal (take his cash offer) or No(t) Deal (refuse, and carry on opening). And this continues either until you choose to Deal, or until you reach the last box.

That's the rules in a nutshell. And this mobile game follows them fairly closely, up to a point.

You type in your name, then play the game as you see it on TV, although the other contestants aren't represented in the game. It zips along quickly, too – although Gameloft has cunningly inserted a dramatic pause around the banker's offers to make you sweat a bit.

There's also two problems. The first one is Noel: he's creepy! And I've worked out why, too: the only part of him that moves is his arms. It's just wrong, although admittedly not a major black mark against the gameplay.

But the second problem is one of authenticity. When a contestant on TV chooses to Deal, they then have to carry on playing until all the boxes are opened, to see what they could've won. It's a major factor in the dramatic tension of the show – walking away with £30,000 from the Banker is all well and good, but not if you would have trousered £250,000 if you'd held your nerve.

The mobile game chops this out. As soon as you Deal, it's straight to the part where you open your box to find out what was inside. If you're a fan of the show, this'll be very disappointing.

Still, the game itself is well presented, keeping track of the total money you've won, and providing a neat graph of your last 20 performances.

Sensibly realising that just opening boxes isn't as gripping as it is on the telly, Gameloft has included an extra Challenge mode. This includes an element of WWTBAM-style multiple-choice trivia quizzing to 'qualify' for 20 episodes of the show, to see how much you could win in a parallel universe where the same player was allowed to play for an entire series.

Deal Or No Deal is a decent, if limited, game, and judging by the success of other TV quiz conversions on mobile, it'll sell well – at least until the bubble bursts for the TV series in the real world.

Opting to miss out the post-Deal box-opening is a baffling decision though, given that most people who buy the game will be proper fans of the series. And if they were going to tweak the game, they could have put in some kind of pass-the-handset multiplayer mode.

Still, if you want more Noel than your TV can provide and don't mind these niggles, Deal Or No Deal is well worth a look.