Customer Reviews

Trivial Pursuit Millennium Edition [Board Game]

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

As a fan of the original Trivial Pursuit, I was anxiously awaiting opening this package underneath our Christmas tree. However, I was very disappointed in what I opened.

1) The pieces are translucent, and very hard to distinguish.

2) The board is almost paper thin, and does not seem durable at all, unlike the original version.

3) The board is also very distracting, too "busy".

4) The Literature category is gone.

5) As mentioned in another review, the cards are loose in the "box" (actually, a pie piece shaped metal tin), and easily lost or mutilated.

6) Some of the cards were repeats. We found a duplicate card 1/4 of the way through our first game.

7) Not worth the price. Wait until it's on sale to buy it.

My son's Junior Trivial Pursuit game (also bought through Amazon) was much more durable and fun.

I agree with a previous review that stated that TP questions have been getting successively easier with each TP release. The Millennium Edition doesn't seem to break that trend. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing: it allows more of the family to have fun playing.

The GOOD: New set of questions, nice playing board.

The BAD: Card holder is too small and awkward. (Gimme back the box!)

The UGLY: Pie wedges are translucent, making them tough to distinguish in low light.

If the new questions were offered without the board, I'd give them 5 stars. As it is, I'd only recommend the Millennium Edition if you don't already have a previous release of the game, or you're in need of a fresh question set.

Don't be fooled by the somewhat misleading name and text on the box. This isn't a game for history buffs. There are no more questions about past events than you'd find in any previous Genus edition Trivial Pursuit. Accept it as a glitzy packaged Genus V or VI and you'll enjoy it for what it really is. For my taste, I'd rather see more questions about the years 1000 A.D. to 1900 A.D. and less about the Spice Girls and Seinfeld. Trivial Pursuit is becoming too much of a pop culture-oriented game. The "educational value" is questionable. You'd be better off watching Jeopardy. I'll admit that the packaging is pretty cool. There are some problems however. The pie-wedge-shaped metal box doesn't stack well with other games unless you keep it in its squarish "holding box." Also, the transparent "pies and wedges" make it hard to readily determine the colors of the pieces. Plus, question/answer card boxes have been eliminated. The cards are now shrink wrapped while a small plastic card holder will handle a small quantity of cards at a time. It was easier to keep track of "played/used" cards when they could easily be deposited at one end of the box after each play. The picture cards are nice to look at, but they don't really help or hinder one's ability to answer the questions on the other side. You could say this version of the game is "all show and little go." You pay a lot for the fancy packaging. Too bad that people who already have the board and pieces (isn't that nearly everybody) can't get just supplemental boxed card sets like in "the old days." I think the game is now in its Baroque or Rococo period. Too bad. I play monthly with a group of 10 to 15 adults. I own just about every Trivial Pursuit game ever made and many other trivia-type games. This one isn't the best or the worst, but it's sure the prettiest. In my estimation, its a slightly over-priced, misrepresented, over-packaged Genus edition. But if you're a trivia nut like me and my friends, you gotta have it.

The millenium version of Trivial Pursuit falls short of the other versions, in structure and content.

1. There is only ONE small plastic card holder (it holds about 30 cards at a time) instead of two full boxes that can be held by different teams.

2. The extra cards are loose in the box, which means that there is a greater chance of them being lost or torn.

3. The game pieces are translucent, and it is very difficult to tell which color is which.

4. There are very few questions out of the 20th century, let alone the millenium....most of the questions are centered around the last 2 decades.

This version is easier for the whole family to play. The actual questions are easier for younger players...I am 23, and I used to stay away from entertainment questions, but now it could be considered my strongest category. Even my 13 year old cousin had a chance at answering more questions.....but the whole family agreed that the older Genus verion was better engineered and more challenging (and therefore more fun).

Let's face it: Trivial Pursuit is still the most entertaining, accurate, and readily available game on the market. However, of all the changes in this edition, about half are good and half are bad.

First, they made several much-needed improvements. The triangle wedges can no longer be inserted at the wrong angle, making them stuck in the game pieces. I can't tell you how many times a wedge would get stuck in the old edition. Also, the new batch of questions is improved. Gone are the dated questions (e.g. regarding East Germany or the USSR). Gone are the blatant inaccuracies (e.g. the Great Wall of China being visible from space). And gone is the horrid miscategorization of including astrology questions in the Science category. Although the questions are slightly easier, I think they are generally improved. Also, the addition of a "Wild Card" category is a nice touch.

But there are many new problems in this Millenium Edition. Making the pieces transparent isn't a problem, but making the wedges transparent was a terrible decision. It's annoyingly difficult to tell green wedges from blue even when they are in bag; it's impossible to tell them apart when they are in a pink piece. This bothers me enough that I use wedges from an old game when I play. Also, the "themed" cards are an unwelcome addition. The idea was to have all questions on certain cards be based on a theme, such as Nelson Mandella. The problem is, it's not easy to come up with a "Sports and Leisure" question about Mandella. So most questions on "theme" cards are somewhat unrelated to their categories. This is an annoyance, and detracts from the feel of the game. Also, since the backs of theme cards show pictures of the persons or things involved, all questions and answers are printed on the same side of the card. This means that the player can't ask to look at the question, a useful tool when dealing with words not easily pronounced.

All in all, I would recommend this as a fun learning game for all ages. Still, there are many improvements I would like to see in future editions. Perhaps a viable competitor will emerge to convince Hasbro that the changes are needed.

For the past 3 or 4 years, I have been looking forward to yet another edition of Trivial Pursuit. Frankly, I am slightly disappointed with this new version. It seems like most of the "new" questions are on the same topics and the same people (e.g., Timothy Leary shows up in every 10 entertainment questions...I didn't know he had done that much to deserve so many questions). Some of the other questions are not very challenging...I almost thought I was playing Trivial Pursuit for kids. Finally, the game board is not very durable. Past versions have been able to withstand a lot of abuse, but keep this one away from the kids because it can be bent rather easily. Overall, I still enjoyed the game, but the luster of it has faded with this new edition.

As a major fan of trivial pursuit, I was very much looking forward to the millennium edition. We played it the first night we received it and it was very disappointing. We have Genus IV edition, and there were many questions that were copied word for word from that edition. The questions were much easier than past editions and certainly did not cover the whole millennium. That's just the questions. The card box is entirely too small, not to mention ugly. Also, when you have to pass it from person to person, you can glimpse the answers on the picture cards. I would not recommend this game to any trivia buffs, as the earlier editions offer the same questions in a better package.

To the reviewers who claim that nobody will know more than 5% of the answers, or that people won't know 90% of the questions, I have to ask, what game were you playing? If I had one complaint with this game, it's that it seems dumbed down. (I finished the game on my first turn during a recent go-round. Really. It's that simple.) In fact, the questions seem to be getting easier with each new edition. Compare this one with the orginal Genus or Genus II Editions (back when you got 1000 cards) and you'll see what I mean. And as far as being a "Millennium" edition, too many of the questions are from the past 100-150 years. I was expecting a good deal more about the early part of the millennium--stuff on the Crusades, the Middle Ages, etc. I'll still give it a decent rating, because it CAN be fun, it's just not all that challenging.

Don't fall for the marketing hype or the attractive pie shapedtin. This edition is fair at best. The sports catagory is awful, elvisquestions too plentiful and the history only goes back to WWII! I love to play trivail pursuit, but was greatly disappointed with the questions. Many are very vague and had repetitive subjects. The card holder is too small and awkward for the cards. The transparent pieces caused several near fights because the colors were had to discern. I do not recommend this edition..for the misleading marketing and poor design of this Millennium Mess!

I would never recommend this version of Trivial Pursuit to a die-hard pursuiter like myself. Yes, the questions are interesting, and I found some even humourous, but there's aren't enough of them! I've owned this game a mere 3 weeks, and I find myself repeating questions. Yes, I'm sure this game is a blast if you play it once a month, but for someone like me, it's a pain not having enough questions.