Customer Reviews

The Beatles Trivial Pursuit

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

For me, Trivial Pursuit is all about the questions and this selection does the job.

Most people know at least a little bit about The Beatles, but not so much that they're getting a doctorate in Beatleology. I've seen that first hand conducting live trivia contests each year at the annual Fest For Beatles Fans.

There has to be a careful balance of questions between those that have you instantly say "I know that," those that have you searching your brain ("It's on the tip of my tongue!"), those that puzzle but surprise you ( "Wow, really? That's neat to know!"), and those that leave you wondering "Huh?" Can't make them all too easy or too hard. No fun in that.

Questions for Trivial Pursuit special-interest packages like The Beatles are even more challenging. The mix has to satisfy both the casual participant and the dedicated fan.

In general, the mix of questions here is a good one. I very much like the fact that they are sorted by category onto separate cards (six questions per category card) and arranged in degree of difficulty (1-2 easiest, 3-4 medium, 5-6 hard).

The categories that are the most fun are those that cover the movies and songs - timeless areas for any fan. Next in enjoyment are solo questions. Because these cover all four solo careers they end up broad enough to be generally accessible. "Albums and singles" are obvious, though to new generation fans singles (and albums) may be as mysterious a concept as a compact disc was to Austin Powers.

Oddly the toughest category is probably "The Beatles in America" because it focuses on a limited slice of time. Still, I often smiled at clever wording in the questions that dropped clues to help a casual fan to figure out the correct answer just by listening carefully.

The History category touches just about anything in the Fab Four story, and probably contains the greatest number of fun factoids (back to their days in Germany). Full disclosure: In response to a query from the Trivial Pursuit team months ago, my wife provided the answer to one question, the name of a Chicago ice cream shop/candy store visited by The Beatles in 1965. (She tossed that off without a second's hesitation.)

This Trivial Pursuit package should provide plenty of entertaining moments, especially revealing how much we really have absorbed about The Beatles. I know it'll be an ideal party accompaniment for me, especially with one of those new remastered boxed sets playing in the background.

Before it arrived, I was imaging what the player pieces would look like -- the Pop Culture version had a cell phone and Atari joystick, and I thought it'd be nice to have the Beatles main instruments be the pieces.

Alas, Beatles Trivial Pursuit was not that clever. The player pieces are the normal pie thing, but the twist of the game is a second piece you control, a pawn. Your pawn goes around an outer track, which features different areas like Come Together, Get Back, All You Need is Love and Ticket to Ride. While your pawn is in one of those areas, you challenge people or send them back spaces. It's interesting, but unnecessary.

It comes with a special die featuring different iconic Beatles logos (Yellow Submarine and pic of them jumping in AHDN for example). Which logo lands decides what level question you get. There's 2 of each level: easy, medium and difficult on each card. I quickly figured out that each card is about the same thing. Like the Hollywood Bowl concerts. Or Band on the Run.

The categories are: Movies, Songs, Singles & Albums, On their Own, History, The Beatles in America, and Movies. The hard ones are quite hard, and even some of the easy ones are difficult.

But everything about this game screams cheap. The pieces are very cheaply made. I feel like the special die's markings will rub off quickly. The cards are not glossy and look sloppy. Fairly disappointing.

It goes without saying that this Beatles Trivial Pursuit game isn't going to break any historical ground among the over-zealous, hardcore Beatle-maniacs out there who know the answers to questions like: who was the screen-writter for "Yellow Submarine," the movie (Lee Minoff); or what type of car did George drive John and their respective wives home in durinig their first LSD experience (a Mini); or the name of the photographer who shot the infamaous "Butcher Cover" scene for the American album "Yesterday...and Today," (Robert Whitaker). If you know the answers to these questions then, yes!!!, you'll be sadly dissappointed with this game!

However, if you are just a casual Beatles fan, or someone who thinks they know a lot about the Beatles but have only the knowledge that was provided to you via teenie-bopper mag's from the 60's, or even if you are a young admirer that was born just a little too late (like me!) to experience Beatle-mania in its fullest, but love them all the same; this game rocks it!

Yeah, the gameboard is a bit flimsey, and the board pieces are generic to the original game, but so what?! The whole point of this game is the questions! I remember having board games as a kid (especially Trivial Pursuit!) where the boards whould fall apart after two or three uses. Plus, this one has the bonus track that might actually allow you to finish a game in one night! (if you like). As for specialized game pieces?...I hear the Beatles Monopoly game has a pretty good thing going for it!

Basically what I'm saying is: you can't please 'em all the time! I love this game...I'm not the Beatles expert, but I know a lot more than most (one pie wedge goes to who can point out what book Lennon pulls out of a book case, kisses and reads in "Help!" the movie,... which, i might add, the game got wrong!). Despipte this, I was still stumped by a lot of the questioins...and what I also know is that this game is fantastic! With all the hub-bub around Beatles-related merchandise recently; Rock Band, Digital Remasters, clothing, T.V. advertisinig, popssible iTunes downloading, etc...I think this game gives something unique to the more devoted Beatles fans out there that want to have a little more fun with their favorite musical group, but aren't so over the top that this is all old brown bag material!

So! If you want to have a good time with some fellow Beatles friends, party, have some drinks, listen to some Sgt. Pepper and Revolver while finding out some things you may not have known about your fav Fab Four; get the game! If you're concerned about mint-in-box condition collectors items, making money off of the beauty that was the Beatles, or know absolutely EVERYTHING there is to know about John, Paul, George, Ringo, and everyone else who had a hard day's night, then just pass it up...and do us little children who may not be as "worthy" as you a favor...and let us enjoy the glory that is...the BEATLES!!!

P.S. those first questions were ones I pulled out of my head and are not in the game to my knowledge, as I have not read every question in the game. If you knew those before hand, try and answer only hard (5-6 level) questions the whole game...if you get all of them right...I suggest you find a new band to become obsessed with!

We bought this game to accompany the Monopoly Game: the Beatles edition, which inspired by the America edition of Monopoly. In that game, you have to answer certain questions when you land on the corners, and then you get to buy a piece of property without landing on it, or get it entirely for free.

We thought it would be fun to sharpen our trivia knowledge about The Beatles this way. Wow, did we get our head banged against the wall with this one! This is not for the faint of heart - if you thought you knew The Beatles, this game will teach you a couple of things you never even HEARD of.

A must have for any Beatles fan. Seriously.

Lost in the high-horsepower publicity machine that fueled the 09-09-09 release of the remastered Beatles CD's and RockBand game, comes this new edition trivial pursuit covering all things Fab.

The questions are grouped into topics such as "Singles and Albums", "The Beatles In America" and "The Beatles Movies". As players navigate the board, questions fall into "easy", "medium" and "difficult" levels.

High marks are due for the accuracy of the answers. Clearly, they were checked, double-checked and proofread, so arguments about whether a player's answer is correct should be rare indeed.

Anyone remotely interested in the Beatles will be able to make a good dent at the "easy" level, but the "medium" questions would most likely be a challenge, except to serious fans. The "difficult" questions are indeed tough, at times, eclipses Beatle periphery (for example, the answer to one question is the name of someone on Ed Sullivan's production team), crossing the line "look what I know" to "look what I read". Unless you're a real Beatle student who has read several books about them, are playing with hardcore fans (say at a Beatlefest - where the game was a big seller this year) or it's an open book round, these are likely going to slow the pace of the game a bit. The upside, of course, is that anyone can learn something new about the Beatles by playing.

Still, fans looking to complement their Beatles monopoly game released last year will want to add this to their Christmas lists.

Beatles Trivia is a must-buy for any true Beatles fan. Some of the questions are very in depth and difficult. The game probably would not be much fun for the novice fan because of the difficulty of the questions.

Being an author of a book on John Lennon which took twenty years of research to compile (Shoulda Been There, John Lennon: Shoulda Been There), I thought I had an exceptional working knowledge of The Beatles. But the Beatles Trivial Pursuit game is teaching me humility and fun facts in one fell swoop.

My husband and I have placed stacks of Trivial Pursuit questions all over our house, and when we have a spare moment, we try one or two. When we hit upon a question that we don't know, we try to find a moment to investigate that fact and learn more. For example, "What's the most valuable Beatles album of all time?" I readily said, "The Butcher Album." But I was wrong. It's "Jolly What," an album containing four songs by The Beatles and eight (I think) by Frank Ifield. Who knew?

Honestly guys, the questions are interesting!! They aren't inane, nerd questions. They make you think. I once had a geography teacher who repeatedly said, "Look at that fish again." Okay, she was a trifle weird, but I'm pretty sure that what she meant was, "Re-examine what you think you know."

With the Trivial Pursuit questions as prompters, I've re-examined my Beatles knowledge. I've learned about the cover artists who designed the albums, the back-up musicians, and the people behind the scenes. I seen things in Beatles artwork that I never noticed, and I've heard lines in the songs that had always slipped by me heretofore.

Bottom line, people: This game is interesting, fun, and totally challenging. If you lived during the 60's, if you liked The Beatles, if you are a Second Gen fan, if you like trivia, if you want to expand your knowledge of musical history, if you are just plain cool...you're gonna love this game.

And even if you don't have time to sit down and play a full-fledged game, you can do what we're doing...use the cards for brain teasers...take them in the car on trips or commutes...use them to keep your brain sharp.

Is Beatles Trivial Pursuit all it's cracked up to be? "Oh yeah, I tell ya somethin' I hope you'll understand..." I give it two "Wooooooo's" and a "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah.....Yeah!!!!!"

for those of us who eat, sleep & drink Beatles, this is the ultimate set of Beatle trivia. i think this is more stimulating than the Beatles Monopoly because here u really need to think Beatles & not just see cutesy Beatle names or tokens.

i'm glad they made this because it just adds another way to get our Beatle fix in addition to Rockband & the new remasters.

2009 is almost like 1964 again!

(and don't forget Cheap Trick's cover of Sgt. Pepper & Mojo magazine's Abbey Road tribute cd.)

My friends and family are avid game-players and, being a Beatles fan, I snapped it up for my sister the second I saw it. Unfortunately, the trivia is so obscure that there were very few answers any of us could provide. Even after YEARS of listening to Breakfast With The Beatles (a syndie radio program that features 'encyclopedic' mounds of Beatles info), I couldn't compete--not so much fun.

Guess I should have expected this - but as a big Beatles fan, thought the questions were overly hard. My son shares my enthusiasm for the Beatles, and has seen their Anthology and read endlessly on them, nevertheless found the questions very hard as well. Hard to play when the trivia is so obscure!