Customer Reviews

Family Feud

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

There are just so many great game shows that are on television today that have been the standards of excitement and joy. Nevertheless, that hasn't been said all the time with the way they've been conjured as video game counterparts. With constants on the Playstation 2 like Wheel Of Fortune and Jeopardy proving their definitive status in gaming for years, many people have wanted another classic on the video game market. Family Feud has also been one of those shows as well. This past year, the show celebrated its 30th anniversary, and a new host as well, John O' Hurley. Now, it is on the video game market, but does it realy match what the survey said.

Family Feud for the Playstation 2, tries to deliver one of the greatest shows of all time to the video game market. The game features over 1,000 questions that match your integrity to what typically 100 people said. The game however handles well visually, and there are a lot of extras to unlock like sets from previous editions of the shows going all the back to when Richard Dawson hosted the show in the late 70's and early 80's. Unfortunately, there are a lot of flaws with this version. One flaw is that it sometimes has to be exact when your giving a right answer. If you give a similar answer in word, that might register as a strike by mistake. Another disadvantage is that the game doesn't feature John O' Hurley as the host and voiceover. Instead, Todd Newton from GSN's Whammy!: The All New Press Your Luck is the emcee in this version. Although he handles well in the voice, the gameplay misses out.

All in all, if you're a fan of Family Feud, I really don't recommend that you get this game. Instead, why don't you get it for the computer, or download it off the website, iwin.com, which brrings out more fun to the legendary game show. If you don't have a computer either, and only a Playstation 2, than this would be considered as just a rental, and that is the #1 answer.

Graphics: B

Sound: C+

Control: C-

Fun & Enjoyment: D+

Overall: C-

I wish I had seen the other reviews before buying this game. While only $20 it is not going to break the bank, but I'd rather have my money back for the most part. The only real highlight is the Family creator at the start of the game. It is not going to create near perfect renditions of your loved ones, you can have some fun with all the various features to re-create your family either as they really look... or as you'd like them to look! There are a lot of options available so you can have some fun with that. And as you play, you unlock even more features that you can't use at the onset... That is if you get that far!

After the family creation process is over, the game goes downhill fast. Now I've only played one player against the computer, so maybe 2 player is more fun. But at the Face Off, I was able to "buzz in" every time before the computer so there was not much challenge there. I agree with what others said about the host repeating the SAME PHRASES over and over, even within the same question. The pace is slow, especially if you have to sit and watch the computer play a round while you do nothing. I didn't have TOO many problems with answers not being accepted that I thought should be, although a few of the answers that were eventually revealed seemed silly, but I guess the real show is like that too sometimes. I also didn't even realize you could just type last names for answers of people for awhile. You don't have much time to type, and if you have to stop and think for second how to spell your answer, move the cursor around anyway, otherwise you will eat up the few seconds you have to input a response.


My big problem was... after losing my first game to the computer, I won the 2nd game. But even that was a chore. No one got to 300 points, so we had to play a final round, where all we had to do was get the number one answer at the Face Off and we'd win. Well, it took about 5 questions until that actually happened, and unlike the real show, you only got one guess at it instead of going back and forth until it was revealed. And to make it worse... they never showed you what the actual answer was after no one guessed it. But eventually I got one and won the match.

As the game was ready to start the bonus round. It froze. I never got to play the bonus round because of a stupid in game glitch, and I see I am not alone with this. The $20 price point does not excuse obvious glitches like that. It should not have been released if it had issues like that. I'm almost afraid to play again for fear that I will get to the end again, only to not be able to play the Fast Money round.

While Game Shows turned into PS2 games are never perfect, I'd still prefer my older copies of Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune which don't have all these issues. I'm wondering if they'll eventually make a Deal or No Deal or 1 Vs. 100 PS2 game!

So to review:

Pro:

Fun Family creator process with a lot of options to unlock.

Cons:

The host uses the same phrases over and over again.
Gotta type fast, very little time to think before you are X'd.
In game glitches cause it to lock up and lose any progress you've made.

I wanted this game to be good--I really wanted it to be a lot of fun. It fails to meet my expectations simply because the game is BUGGY! Examples:

1: During the fast money round, a contestant can enter APPLE for 32 points for the question, "name a kind of pie". The same question for the 2nd contestant can be answered with APPLES (the plural form of the first contestant's answer) and the game would award 32 points...again...no buzzer, no nothing. I first noticed this when the question, "name something you wipe your mouth with" was asked, and I answered "napkin" and received 82 points. The 2nd contestant answered "towel" and received 82 points. Clearly the system recognizes that "napkin" and "towel" are the same answer, but it did not buzz the repeated answer. Furthermore, it didn't catch that a survey of 100 people cannot yield 164 points.
2. As another reviewer noted, the system can't recognize that "grandparent" and "grandma" should probably be considered the same answer. But of course, we answered "grandparent" and got the dreaded X while the answer "grandma" was on the board.
3. The game locks up. Randomly. For no apparent reason. Need to reboot the whole thing to get it back up again, and data is lost along the way (if you had won any 'bling' before the crash, for example).

I was extremely excited to play this game, but overall, it's a disappointment because of the obvious bugs. One could argue that for $19.99, expectations should be low, but I don't think having low expectations should allow for blatant bugs to pass whoever QA'd this game before launching it.

The game is great for the amount of money I spent on it. I wish it had the different hosts on it and that there were more options when customizing your family. Overall, it is fun,difficult, and entertaining. If you like game shows, this game is right up your alley.

We enjoy this game. We really interact as a family. Now we need to get another controller.

If you like Family Feud, do not ruin any good memories you have of the game show by playing this game. I have only played this about 4 times so far, but I am already fed up with it. Here's my list of what I hate about it so far:
Nit-picking answers. I answered "bike" for a way to get to school, but it X'd me and the answer ended up being "bicycle."
Ridiculously hard computer opponents on the "average" setting. I'm not dumb, but I felt that way after losing three times in a row.
Fast money round does not give enough time to type in the answers. This is very frustrating. It wouldn't be a problem if I had a keyboard attached to my PS2, but I don't.
Overall slow gameplay (except for not having enough time to answer the questions).
Completely bogus surveys - even Americans wouldn't answer surveys this idiotically.
Conclusion: Absolutely no fun. Completely frustrating.

Why can't a good version of this game be created for Playstation? The game freezes up. I noticed it always happens after you play the Fast Money Round. You can save your progress, then you are asked if you want to play again. If you say yes, the game freezes up when you buzz in on the first question after you type in your answer. Also, you have to be a super fast typer or you run out of time. You can type in an answer and get a strike, but then your opponent can type almost the same exact answer and get it right. Graphics are not as impressive as they could be. The only items you can unlock are different studios and accessories for team members. The family creator makes some real ugly characters, too.

I got this game since I've been a fan of FF since it came on TV. This version was a bit disappointing. The computer can be very picky with accepting answers. Unless you type it as they have it, you often will get a strike. Also, the game seems to move painfully slow, and the host repeats himself - a lot. I was told I unlocked a new stage set to play, but every time I chose this set, the game didn't recognize it, and I had to choose another stage set.

The computer almost always steals successfully, and of course it has the answers as they appear on the board. I've since gotten the PC version of Family Feud 2010, and it's MUCH BETTER than this game. Hell, The PS1 and PC version of FF with Louie Anderson hosting is better than this version - and I hated Louie as the host of FF.

This game is fun, fun, fun, and my famiy enjoys planning this game together or with others!!

This game is nothing like the game show, nor is it like earlier video game versions of the game show. Purchase at your own risk. My wife and I attempted to play this game twice before deciding to never play it again. There are two main reasons why:

1 The parsing/categorizing is terrible. "TV" isn't understood as television. "Bee" came up as a missed answer in a puzzle where "bug" had already been revealed. While we understand that no game can read peoples' minds, this particular game had zero common sense.

2 The interface for entering answers is frustrating. It was nice that they included a way to toggle between abc and qwerty on-screen keyboards, but in some situations, we were given roughly 2.5 seconds to submit an answer before getting a strike. I suppose one could get around this problem by using the usb keyboard peripheral.

To the makers of this game: I watched Family Feud. I knew Family Feud. Family feud was a friend of mine. This is not Family Feud.

Sadly, at $15, this is not the most expensive coaster we own.