Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Music Edition

With the droopy udders of the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? cash cow having been milked for every last drop, it's not surprising to find that themed games have started to appear. We've had kids, sport and, predictably, we now have music, too.

Those confident that their musical knowledge is up there with the best of them might be in for a slight shock when they actually play this game, though, as the questions are actually rather hard. Not only that, the whole spectrum of music is covered. So, while you might remember who was number on at Christmas 1997 (the Spice Girls, as it happens), your knowledge of opera or musical notation might not be quite as sharp.

To succeed in this musical edition of the classic TV show, then, you will need to have a fairly wide degree of music knowledge. Having said that, as you'd expect the majority of the questions still centre on pop music – especially the earlier ones. But to do really well, you may want to have a group of friends around you.

Actually winning a virtual million isn't impossible – we did it, although admittedly luck, rather than an encyclopedic knowledge of music in all its many forms, played a part.

The game itself is pretty much what you'd expect: you have a series of 15 progressively harder questions to deal with and three lifelines to aid you when the going gets tougher.

50:50 removes two wrong answers from the four on offer, Phone A Friend 'virtually' rings a chum who can usually be relied on to come up with the right answer, and Ask The Audience surveys the studio and, once again, comes back with a fairly reliable choice.

A neat, original touch is that you can not only save your high score to the phone's memory, but also add it to an online ranking system. If you think that your performance is worthy for inclusion, you simply select the option to add it to the online table at the end of the game and it's all done automatically for you. Competition for the top spots is high, though, so don't be disappointed if you don't appear in the top ten (or even top 100).

As spin-offs go, then, this music edition of Millionaire is quite a decent one. The questions are intelligent, thoughtful and plentiful enough to avoid repetition, and although a few sound clips might have improved the game even further, it's still a joy to play – despite the obvious fact that, unlike the real thing, you don't actually walk away with any cash at the end of it.

A game like Millionaire is a joy for developers, as it's simple to create and there's an almost endless series of themed sequels available. That said though, we're happy to report that this music addition is easily one of the best around.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Music Edition

A nice touch on a familiar theme and well worth checking out if you have a passion for music
Score
Dean Mortlock
Dean Mortlock
Dean's been writing about games for 15 years now and has played more than he's had hot dinners. Mind you, he does eat a lot of salad…