''Smarty Pants: Trivia Fun for Everyone'' is a

quiz A quiz is a form of game or mind sport in which players attempt to answer questions correctly on one or several specific topics. Quizzes can be used as a brief assessment in education and similar fields to measure growth in knowledge, abilities, ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the ...

. It was released for the Wii

video game console A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to ...

in November 2007. The title features over 20,000 trivia questions covering a variety of topics.

Gameplay

When setting up a game (using existing

Mii A Mii ( ) is a customizable avatar used on several Nintendo video game consoles and mobile apps. Miis were first introduced on the Wii console in 2006 and later appeared on the 3DS, Wii U, the Switch, and various apps for smart devices. Miis c ...

s if desired), players input their ages, allowing the title to tailor the trivia questions to fit the age of the players. Actual play consists of a variable number of rounds, depending on selected game length. During a round, each player spins a wheel which determines the category for the upcoming set of questions. While spinning and shortly after the wheel stops, players may use the

Wii Remote The Wii Remote, also known colloquially as the Wiimote, is the primary game controller for Nintendo's Wii home video game console. An essential capability of the Wii Remote is its motion sensing capability, which allows the user to interact wi ...

to "bump" the wheel to attempt to land on the desired category. Categories include "

Art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

", " Books", "

Entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have developed over thousa ...

", "

Fashion Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion i ...

", " Games", " Places & People", "

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

" and "

Sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...

". During typical competitive play, players attempt to answer multiple choice questions before others by quickly "buzzing in". While the question is displayed prior to someone buzzing in, the four available answers are not shown until afterwards, so players may think they know the answer only to be stymied when it is missing as one of the choices. Correct answers reward players with points, while incorrect answers result in a score penalty. Scoring can be set to be either "Countdown", where points are awarded based on how quickly players answer, or "Wager", where players battle to decide how many points the upcoming set of questions will be worth in advance. At the end of the game and between certain rounds of longer games, additional bonus rounds are played. During bonus rounds, players take turns answering trivia questions that only one player may answer. Players continue to receive questions until an incorrect answer is given, at which point that player is out of the bonus round. The bonus round continues until all players have given an incorrect answer.

Reception

The game received "mixed or average reviews" according to video game

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

. Reviewers were pleased with the actual trivia content but questioned the presentation and value. The

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

review summarized this sentiment: "It's bare-bones as far as console-based trivia games go, and at $50 it's a good $30 too expensive, but it's still a fun game to break out with groups of friends." The

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

review agreed that the title was probably priced too high, but did note favorably, "Since the interface is easy to navigate and the fundamentals of trivia so inherently intuitive to understand, any casual player can pick this game up and have fun with it ..

References

External links

* {{moby game, id=/wii/smarty-pants 2007 video games Electronic Arts games Multiplayer and single-player video games Planet Moon Studios games Quiz video games Video games developed in the United States Wii games Wii-only games