The Price Is Right

On the face of it, a TV game show would seem to be an almost ideal starting point for mobile game. A familiar brand, a simple yet proven game mechanic and a readymade reward system should provide at least a headstart in the mobile game stakes.

In practice, the results have been mixed at best. Whilst there have certainly been a few star prizes (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and Strike It Lucky faired well), these have been considerably outweighed by less satisfying 'consolations'. Sale of the Century, Deal or No Deal and The Weakest Link all wandered off with the reviewer's equivalent of a Blankety Blank Chequebook and Pen, whilst Family Fortunes and Blockbusters were hurled straight into the Pocket Gamer Dusty Bin. (Kids, ask your gran – Ed).

And sadly it's into this latter category that we must also consign The Price Is Right, which represents one of the least satisfying mobile experiences we've endured in recent months.

The game, like the show, is made up of a range of price-related mini-games. Anyone who remembers the original show from the 1980s (or the various rehashes since) might recall the likes of Cliffhanger (guess a price and the mountaineer progresses up a slope by the amount you are wrong), Clock Game (you have 60 seconds to correctly type in the price of two items) or 'the big spinning wheel thing' (get as close to 100 as possible to have a chance to win a car).

Spruce up these ingredients with garish visuals based on the original TV show and you'd think it'd gel together quite nicely.

The fact that it doesn't is partly down to the execution. From the overly simple sounds, visuals, animations (the hole-in-one golf ball is truly terrible) to some too easy games (for example, the spinning wheel) and clunky menus (we seemed to spend half our time in the help section), The Price Is Right feels rushed and a little, well, cheap.

To be fair to the developer, there are also more fundamental problems that it's hard to see a way around. For starters, there's the fact that the prices themselves are relatively contentious. When estimating the cost of 15 pints of beer, for instance, we were astonished to be told the correct figure was £32 – begging the inevitable question, can you tell us (Londoners) the way to that pub, please?

Inevitably, the fact that you can't see the item as modelled by the lovely Linda on screen as in the original TV show hardly helps matters, as you can't tell which type of 3GB MP3 player we're talking about (is it an Apple, a Sony, or a Matsushita?).

Equally, tips and banter from a jovial Leslie Crowther or Bruce Forsythe brand of host are sorely missed.

Underpinning all these niggles is the unavoidable fact that most of these games simply aren't that much fun when divested of the opportunity to actually win (or at least see someone actually win) a BBQ set, inflatable swimming pool or widescreen TV. As you don't even get to see a picture of the prizes you've won, all you're really playing for here is imaginary high score money.

The game's play-and-pass multiplayer mode offers the only conceivable replay value. We could certainly imagine it might provide passable post-pub entertainment, especially if the beers had been served at The Price Is Right pub. For those of us who are sober, however, whatever the price it most certainly isn't right.