Wits and Wagers

For a trivia game to be fun it has to have three elements - a unique premise that players want to revisit, the ability to keep all participants actively involved from start to finish, and most importantly, great questions. A game might be able to get away with the first two but without the third, a battle of wits against friends quickly becomes pointless and dull. A case in point is the recently released Wits and Wagers for XBLA which is long on wagers, short on wits.

In Xbox Live's first trivia game, players compete in a seven round session, guessing at answers to questions and then placing bets on who they think is right. If a gamer feels confident in his answer, he can bet on himself. If not, he can bet on someone else. The goal is to earn as many chips as possible by the end of the last round. Wits and Wagers is reminiscent of Scene It, minus the video, but lacks that titles polish.

The rounds are short, so once a player gets a big lead they're impossible to catch, ending the contest prematurely. The games biggest offender is the questions themselves, there's no rhyme or reason to any of them ("As of 2005, how many undergrad and graduate students attended the University of Texas at Austin," how in the world is anyone supposed to know that?!?) When no skill is involved in answering a question, a trivia game is turned into a guessing game. Wits and Wagers dancing avatars and quick and easy multi-player are appealing but is a trivia game with weak questions worth your time? Don't bet on it.

PROS: Rounds are nice and short, dancing avatars are a nice touch
CONS: Questions are obscure and random, big leads can't be overcome

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