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volume 1, issue 21

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New!! The Archives have been cleaned up, fead links fixed, and printable versions restored! Also, don't miss the new comments on the front page!

Livin' With The Sims: theAntiELVIS explores the wild and wacky world that is Will Wright's The Sims, asking the inevitable quesiton, "is The Sims the first step toward a virtual life where everyone is Swedish?"

Pixel Obscura: Josh Vasquez on Omikron: The Nomad Soul.

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Off the Shelf:
We Don't Know Jack

By Jason "loonyboi" Bergman

Title: You Don't Know Jack: Movies
You Don't Know Jack Volume 4: The Ride
You Don't Know Jack: The NetShow
Publisher: Sierra
Developer: Bezerk
Average Price: $15 (NetShow: FREE)

won’t beat around the bush here…around the loonygames camp, You Don’t Know Jack is popular. Hell, it’s incredibly popular. We just love the damn thing. We’re not talking about some once-in-a-while thing here, we’re talking about regular You Don’t Know Jack (YDKJ) battles.

Everyone around here seems to love the thing. The non-gamers on the staff, who normally run for the door when someone mentions the word "Quake" can’t get enough of it. Heck, even my girlfriend likes it. :)

And why the heck not? These are great games. My personal favorite of the lot is YDKJ: Movies, since I’m one of those obsessive film buffs. loonygames contributor Jeff Solomon and his filmmaking partner in crime Jordan Barker have been known to actually get into seriously violent fights over YDKJ: Movies. YDKJ: Movies is extremely well made, taking the original "style" of YDKJ, and making every step of the way geared towards the film buff. Instead of a regular counter, they turned it into a filmstrip-esque countdown. Instead of just the usual cheers when a person gets a question right, they made it so the numbers take a bow in Oscar-like glory. It’s very clever.

If you’ve never played YDKJ, I feel sorry for you. I’m serious! Few games that I’ve played really have the sort of "get-togetherness" that YDKJ has. I’ve played these with more non-gamers than anything I can think of off the top of my head. You know how far this goes? I played YDKJ: Movies with my father. :)

The concept of YDKJ is very simple. It’s a trivia game. No real graphics, just text, and a bunch of really funny hosts. There’s enough simulated banter from the host to make you think for a moment that it’s actually happening live…if only a moment. The questions are nothing short of brilliant. The concept of this trivia game, is that it’s, "the show where high culture and pop culture collide". What’s that mean? It means you can expect questions that manage to incorporate Socrates, with say…Pez dispensers. It’s quite nutty, and wonderfully bizarre.

Lately, though, the series has undergone some changes, some for the better…and some not quite as good. Let’s start with the good ones. The series’ online presence has totally been kicking ass lately, as they’ve switched to an "episode" format (before it was just one episode, but was updated every week. Now you can view old ones that you’ve missed). The online game is so close to the CDROM version it’s scary, and if you’re on a system with a so-so sound card, you’ll never even notice the downsampled audio. They also added a little while back the ability to play with three people. When the NetShow first launched, it was just two, which was kind of frustrating after the three available on the CDROM edition. If you’re new to the series, this is definitely the place to go.

The bigger (and arguable worse) change, is the new CDROM game, YDKJ Volume 4: The Ride. I’m not entirely sure that calling this volume 4 is especially accurate. It barely resembles the previous games, and while the underlying questions are the same, a lot of new gameplay elements have been added in.

First and foremost, the interface has undergone a radical redesign. Whereas the original game(s) placed you into a game show setting (complete with the producer giving you instructions) the new edition seems to put you on an amusement park ride. I don’t know about you, but this just ain’t doing it for me. The other thing, is that instead of being able to pick your category, like in previous games, the new one has you trying to nail the one you want as they all go zipping by. What’s going on there? That’s not an improvement, if anything, it makes choosing a category a rather silly notion, since I can’t actually read them as they go by. Why give me the option of choosing them if that’s the case?

Volume 4 does have some cool new elements. All the hosts from the previous episodes are back (including my main man Cookie, from YDKJ: Movies). If you’re a fan of the series, you’ll get a kick out of it, I’m sure. Of course, if you’re not, well, then you’ll probably be a bit confused. But I do like that they’re having some fun with us regular YDKJ fans. Also new, are the number of "context-sensitive" questions. There were always a few of them in previous games, but volume 4 is just chock full of ‘em. In one episode of YDKJ (I can’t remember which one specifically) the host announces that he’s going to see how many Brady Bunch episodes he can work in…it’s a fun little thing to throw in, and it really gets that whole "live" feel across. In volume 4, the game kicks off with a question that effects the whole game.

An example question: "who’s a bigger turn on? The Land-O-Lakes maiden, or the Red Baron?" I chose the Land-O-Lakes maiden, and the game tailored itself to bad puns about lactose, dairy products, and chicks in leather. Pretty cool.

The whole interface in volume 4 just isn’t as cool as the previous editions, and I just couldn’t bring myself to get into the whole "ride" thing, but at least the underlying game is pretty much the same. The questions are still fun, and it’s still the best party game around this side of Atomic Bomberman.

The bottom line is really this: if you still don’t know jack…well, I’ll introduce you. He’s a good guy.

- Jason "loonyboi" Bergman is the editor-in-chief here at loonygames.

Credits: Bargain Bin logo illustrated and is © 1999 Dan Zalkus. Bargain Bin is © 1999 Jason Bergman. All other content is © 1999 loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited and like, in poor taste, dude.