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From the makers of the “Buzz!” series of quiz games on PS2 and PS3 comes a brand-new home trivia game for up to eight players. Yes, I’m of course referring to “It’s Quiz Time”. So, is the game any good then? Well, I had a great time playing “It’s Quiz Time ” at EGX last year. As a matter of fact, I managed to kick three other players’ butts in the process. That’s also why I was really looking forward to playing this one in the comfort of my own home.

Up to eight players can join in on the fun in “It’s Quiz Time”.

“It’s Quiz Time” uses your mobile phone or tablet as a player controller rather than having to buy extra peripherals, and that is something which I find to be a massive positive from the very start. We seemed to fill our gaming rooms (and now lofts) with endless extra controllers for one or two games, so using what we already have is a huge plus. You simply download a small app, enter your name, join a game using the room code supplied on the main TV screen, and you’re in. We did have one issue with one model of mobile phone but a quick tweet to the developers, and it was fixed in a later update, impressive!

After a bit of coaching on how to tell the AI host how to pronounce your name (I had to phonetically tell her to pronounce “Si” as in the shortening of Simon rather than the Spanish for “yes”) you choose an avatar or take a selfie (this is the 21st-century after all), and you’re in.

Each round consists of a variety of different questions in a number of different formats. Sometimes a specialist subject can be chosen by each player from which some questions will appear. Questions come in the form of standard multiple choice, a numerical question where each player guesses the correct answer on a sliding scale, taking turns to pick correct answers from a grid of 16 answers avoiding the red-herrings, ranking answers in the correct order, matching answers to each other, plus many more. There’s plenty of variety in each round to keep you interested. You can play a standard game or customize your own game to include your favorite types of questions or exclude those that you don’t like.

its quiz time different variations of rounds

There are a lot of different variations of rounds to be found in “It’s Quiz Time. In other words, there are plenty of things that help the game to be interesting and fun for many hours to come.

Then there’s the sheer number of questions on offer, over 20,000, meaning that it’s highly unlikely that you’ll hit upon a repeat question during your sessions. Players can also enter their ages at the start, and the AI will base some questions on players’ ages, but this can throw up some issues in itself, especially if you don’t know all of your fellow contestants’ ages or year they were born. For instance, “Which film won Best Film Oscar in the year X was born?”. Well, since I don’t know what year X was born…I’m on a complete guess here.

With that said, let’s talk about the AI host, Salli! At first glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking that she resembled a very famous Disney animated lead character from a recent hit-film. As for me, I’m as sick of hearing her quips and insults as I am of hearing “Let It Go!”. You see, Salli has a very robotic and monotone voice that grates enough as it is, but then she throws in pointless comments when you’re trying to read a question or after everyone’s answered that add nothing meaningful to proceedings.

In fact, I wish that there was an option to turn her off, just to speed up proceedings…Because let’s face it. In a multiplayer game, you tend to talk to your fellow contestants after each question, so that you can dish out (and receive) your own abuse without the “help” of an annoying AI host. Furthermore, then there’s her mispronunciation of various words during play. I’ve had Salli read a year as a full number, e.g. 1981 as one thousand, nine hundred and eighty-one, or acronyms as words. There’s a bit of teaching that the developers need to carry out here, but in overall, it’s pretty darn impressive.

There are loads of different categories to choose your specialism from.

Of course, it kind of goes without saying that you will get the most out of a quiz game if you’re playing with others. It’s Quiz Time is fantastic in a party. So much so, that I’ve played many rounds of this game with both friends and family, and all said they thoroughly enjoyed it. There is the option to play alone, a race to answer 30 questions quickly (you get more points the quicker you answer) and work your way up the leaderboards.

At the time of writing I currently 41st in the world, a feat I’m reasonably pleased with. Still, I do find myself returning to the game every now and then, just so that I could try to beat my previous score (which I do with differing amounts of success). So it really is a potluck on which questions you get.

The game also includes the option to broadcast your play for others to join in on Twitch and Youtube. In this age of streaming, this is a great addition, and I’ve watched plenty of people playing online. I’m not a streamer myself, so I will never use this feature, but good to see that the developers have thought about this.

It was George Weasley…Wasn’t it? *sarcasm*

There’s not much to be said for the graphics. I mean, there is an attractive neon cityscape that’s used as a background throughout the whole game. To be fair though, it never feels like it distracts from the main game, which I guess is a success. The AI host is nicely presented, although a strange choice to only include her head, shoulders and arms, not sure what the thinking was there.

Nevertheless, all in all, “It’s Quiz Time” is with no doubt one of the most fun and entertaining quiz games that I have played in a very long time. Simply put, if you like quiz games, then you should give “It’s Quiz Time” a go with no doubt.

Pros:
+ Really good fun as a multiplayer party game, if you’re all pretty competitive
retty competitive+ Plenty of variation in questions and rounds keep you engaged
+ Games are quick
+ Use of smartphones/tablets means there’s no need for extra peripherals to play

Cons:
– The AI host can become very annoying
– Solo play is very limited

Gameplay: 5/5
Graphics: 4/5
Sound/music: 4/5
Controls: 5/5
Replay value: 5/5

tgg grade 4.5 out of 5

Verdict: 4.5/5
I love It’s Quiz Time, because there are loads of questions and lots of variety to the rounds. This game really comes into its own in a group of people, and it handles up to eight players truly well. The fact that online streaming is actually built into the game is impressive.

Even so, I’d like to see a bit more for the single player but appreciate that there’s probably only so much you can do. Even online play against others would be good. The only thing keeping me from giving this game a perfect score is the annoying AI hosted. So I would love to have the ability to turn her off. Nevertheless, I would still definitely recommend grabbing a bunch of friends or family members and getting into this game, because “It’s Quiz Time” offers a whole lot of fun for everyone.

Title: It’s Quiz Time
Developer: Snap Finger Click
Format: PS4/Xbox One/PC Steam (PS4 tested)
Genre: Party/Quiz Games
Resolution: 1080p
Release date: 2017-11-30
Difficulty: Medium/Hard
Spent time: 20+ Hours
PEGI age rating: 3+
Price: £15.99
Install Size: 5GB (approx)