Cost: $20.00 From: Playmark Inc. Players: 2-6 Playing Time: 30-45 minutes Type of game: Trivia Complexity: 2 Skill level: 2 Reviewed by: Peter Sarrett, Issue 1.4, May/June 1993
A number of people have asked if The Game Report has ever printed a negative review. The answer, until now, has been "No." Most magazines shy away from megative reviews, not wishing to alienate advertisers or make enemies, often choosing instead to just not review the stinker in question. But just as it's important to know what games to look for, it's equally valuable to know what games to look out for. Quick Wit is such a game.
One of the seemingly endless pretenders to the trivia/knowledge throne, Quick Wit makes the mistake of targeting the lowest common denominator. Played by children, the game might well be a challenging amalgam of problem solving, vocabulary building and visual acuity. Adults will find Quick Wit a pointless game with insultingly easy questions and little entertainment value. The game comes with two decks of cards-- one reserved entirely for visual questions, the other for questions in all other categories. The visual questions are mostly split between Eyeball Bender-type photographs which players have to identify, and "Which of these drawings are indentical?" type puzzles. Most people over twelve years old (the age recommended for this game by its publisher) should be able to handle these in their sleep-- which is fortunate, since they're likely to fall asleep during the game. The questions in the other categories are no less inane. "Q: How many bluebirds were baked in the pie? A: None-- they were blackbirds" and "Q: Gas costs 32 cents per gallon. Its price increases by 50% and then by 50% again. How much does a gallon of gas no cost? A: 72 cents" are typical of the level of questions. Yawn.
To make matters even worse, the layout of Quick Wit's game board is ludicrous and the rules for winning poorly thought out. Plus, to continue a turn you must not only answer correctly, but quickly. Someone has to keep an eye on the timer, watching to make sure the sand hasn't dropped below a stuck-on line (about the 20-second mark). This is fun? People with any wit should avoid this game.