Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? 2012 Edition

Pretty much everyone who has watched an edition of TV quiz show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? has casually wondered how they would personally handle a session in the hotseat themselves.

Would you walk away happy with a tidy grand, or would you push forward and risk everything?

Whatever you think you would do, don't expect the same level of intensity when playing this mobile version, because despite some sleek visuals and some well-timed aural nods to its TV inspiration there's very little of that risk-balancing hook that you'd expect.

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To start the game off you'll have to set up your profile by selecting from a series of mug shots. Your chosen visage goes on to represent you facially with grinning enthusiasm should you answer questions correctly or barely contained grief should you throw your hard-earned (not real) cash down the toilet.

Once your profile is set up you can jump straight into the hotseat and start working your way up the prize ladder by answering the multiple choice questions.

Just in case you've never seen WWTBAM? on the goggle box (or in Danny Boyle's Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire) it works thusly:

You start off with a wallet full of air and gain more cash with each general knowledge trivia question you answer correctly. Eventually, after answering 15 steadily more difficult questions, you'll potentially earn a million pounds.

There are safe points at £1,000 and £50,000, so that if you fire off a wrong answer you won't leave with absolutely nothing. There are also points at which you are given the option to walk away from the table, preserving what you've earned so far.

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Even though WWTBAM? 2012 sticks steadily to the show's format - even to the point of some neatly worked lifelines in the form of 50/50, ask the audience and phone a friend - the main draw of the show is sadly lost here.

Highscores are measured in nothing other than the money you earn, which means that the element of risk which makes the show so infamous worldwide is palpably absent.

When asked if you want to walk away with the money rather than risk losing it you'll never agree, because there's nothing stopping you picking up the game again and perhaps blagging your way through the latter stages next time.

This is a fundamental problem with pushing the show into a game format. It could've been interesting if the money you earned went towards something else in-game. Different profile mugshots, unlockable endless modes, or challenge modes would have thrown in an element of danger-versus-reward which doesn't exist as it stands.

Add to that the more-than-occasional repetition of questions and you've got a wholly tepid offering.

So those quiz-happy WWTBAM? lovers out there will find in this 2012 edition everything that they would expect from a quiz game bearing the name of their favourite show. But without that show's tangible element of peril there's little to connect it to the real thing beyond its admittedly swish presentation and sound.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? 2012 Edition

Lovers of the show might appreciate this version's style and iconic sound bites, but the WWTBAM? 2012 game lacks the integral element of risk which makes the show so watchable
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Matt Sakuraoka-Gilman
Matt Sakuraoka-Gilman
When Matt was 7 years old he didn't write to Santa like the other little boys and girls. He wrote to Mario. When the rotund plumber replied, Matt's dedication to a life of gaming was established. Like an otaku David Carradine, he wandered the planet until becoming a writer at Pocket Gamer.