Jeff Foxworthy dispenses a special kind of justice.
Despite not being a huge trivia nut, I can recognize the potential for trivia / quiz game, and why they would be so addictive that info junkies. Unfortunately, you're smarter than a 5th Class? Making the Grade is not only a bad trivia games, but it's just not well put together in any way. There is really nothing to say when I was reviewing my notes before writing this article and found that all my comments were included in the "negative" section and "positive" section was empty.If you are unfamiliar with Are you smarter than a 5th Class? TV shows, Jeff Foxworthy hosts and guides the participant through a series of grade school about money. A "class" of school children is on standby and get one at a time to help the participant answer questions, which are categorized by topic. During the game, the participant can fall back on a couple of "cheating" options, including peeking at his or her 5th Class answer, copy it directly (which automatically locks him or her in that match) or participant can only be saved once by the fifth grade, if the participant answers wrong, but his temporary partner is entitled.
This is essentially the structure Make the Grade, but there are a couple of extra multiplayer elements thrown into the mix as well. For the most part, this is a very boring and poorly done stake. First and foremost is the only reward you get to play, do it much thought to earn money. Besides hoping for inclusion in the Honor Roll, I see no incentive to play this game beyond the satisfaction you would receive for answering questions correctly. Each main Home Room game plays out as a condensed version of the TV shows and in the end you either walk away with nothing or a fistful of imaginary cash.
The most obvious problem with Make the Grade is the gruesome pictures that are terrible Buggy, at best. Character animation and facial expressions are ridiculous and when schoolchildren run out at the time, I could not help but imagine them as zombies - the sprinting variety of Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake. Other cases include a hysterical 5th Class is not correct to go up to the podium and teleporting in place at the last minute as the camera initially showed an empty spot. Or when one of the kids ran up to my taking part to give him a high five, and he just stood there, ignoring her. I laughed, even though I cried a little inside of the girl.
More problematic is the extremely repetitive gameplay. Last trivia games like Buzz! and Scene It? not only offer a smooth presentation, but also spice up the types and keep things exciting throughout. It is not the case with Make the Grade. And in the course of an hour or two with the game, I already started to see some questions repetitions, which is embarrassing.
And while I am well aware that the game is to ask grade school problems, some of the questions are stupid and have really no need to be kept in the game, including the classic true or false pearls from the PS2 version: an adult is bigger than a newborn baby. Yikes.
If all this were not enough to dissuade you from playing, do so, the clips are identical in almost every game, which means you'll hear Foxworthy and participant spout the same three or four lines constantly. It is really an exercise in annoyance.
Multiplayer does little to brighten the experience. You can play a normal Bout of Home Room game and play hotseat style, or you can go into a game Flash Cards or Spelling Bee, which started two players against each other in timed matches. It is a little more exciting than the single-player option, because a competitive element has been introduced into the equation, but I would never have wanted to play it again. And it is in the multiplayer department, the PC version suffers most, given the lack of online games. As I have said countless times before, no one has a multiplayer PC games on the same PC, so it is unlikely that you ever go up against a comrade here.
Closing remarks
The only redeeming quality I could point out the Make the Grade is that it at least, works properly, and do not seem to go down. That is about it. I'm not even sure I could recommend this game for hardcore fans of the television show, but I will admit to get a bunch of people together to laugh at the game is fun enough. Watching the fifth grade girl is denied a high-five was definitely the highlight of my time with Make the Grade. Hopefully that tells you everything you need to know.
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