Jeopardy! (Rare games)

Jeopardy!

NES - USA - 1st edition.

Developer Rare Publisher GameTek Published 1988-09-?? Platforms NES Genres Licensed, Trivia Themes Game Show Series Jeopardy! Multiplayer Alternating versus Distribution Commercial

The video game developer Rare produced three Jeopardy! games for publisher GameTek, each based on the Jeopardy! trivia game show. The three titles were released on the NES from 1988-1990 as part of the Jeopardy! franchise, and were essentially the same game, but with different questions. The three games include:

Released	Title	Notes
1988-09-??	Jeopardy!	General trivia.
1989-10-??	Jeopardy! Junior Edition	Children's trivia.
1990-06-??	Jeopardy! 25th Anniversary Edition	Adult trivia.

Personal

Own?	No.
Won?	Yes. All three games on easy difficulty.
Finished	Jeopardy! 2019-07-09 / Junior Edition 2019-07-10 / 25th Anniversary Edition 2019-07-24.

Although I enjoy the game show Jeopardy!, I don't care much for game shows simulated as video games. I never played these games growing up, but, as an adult, I played these games just to better familiarize myself with the NES catalog of games, and add them to my list of games I've beaten.

Review

4	4	1	2	7

Best Version: NES

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The games do an adequate job of representing the game show.
• Unlike a lot of licensed video games, the developers actually included the Jeopardy! theme song and sound effects from the show.
• You get to choose the skin tone of your avatar, which is a progressive option for 1988.
• AI opponents randomly give incorrect answers which give hints at the correct answer, which is a nice touch.

Bad

• The show's host, Alex Trebek, is nowhere to be seen.
• The player avatars are poorly drawn and animated. Several of them look a bit terrifying.
• Unlike the game show, you must be able to properly spell every answer you give.
• For some reason, the developers chose the D-pad, not the buttons, to be the way to buzz-in.
• While I can't fault the developers for not using a good AI on such weak hardware, you're basically playing against an opponent that randomly gives correct answers. The harder difficulties just increase the likelihood of randomly guessing and how quickly they'll buzz in.

Ugly

• All three games are essentially identical, only with different trivia and slightly different avatars. Very little effort was spent trying to update the quality of the game engine, graphics, or sound. Even the manuals are very similar.

Media

Box Art

• 

  Jeopardy!.

• 

  Jeopardy! Junior Edition.

• 

  Jeopardy! 25th Anniversary Edition.

Documentation

• 

  Jeopardy! manual.

• 

  Jeopardy! manual - revision.

• 

  Jeopardy! Junior Edition manual.

• 

  Jeopardy! 25th Anniversary Edition manual.

• 

  Nintendo Power.

Screenshots

• 

  That's sexual assault.

Videos

Longplay, Jeopardy!

Longplay, Jeopardy! Junior Edition.

Longplay, 25th Anniversary Edition.

Play Online

NES (Jeopardy), NES (25th Anniversary), NES (Junior Edition)

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	There are multiple female characters to choose from, but they're inconsequential.
Bechdel test?	Fail	Women never talk to each other.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	There is a white, yellow, and brown version of each character, but they're inconsequential.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.

Link

• mobygames.com/game/jeopardy_____ - MobyGames - Jeopardy!
• mobygames.com/game/jeopardy-junior-edition - MobyGames - Jeopardy! Junior Edition
• mobygames.com/game/jeopardy-25th-anniversary-edition - MobyGames - Jeopardy! 25th Anniversary Edition.
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeopardy!_(franchise)#Video_games - Wikipedia - Jeopardy! franchise.
• tcrf.net/Jeopardy!_(NES) - The Cutting Room Floor - Jeopardy!