by Edwin L. Carpenter – Associate Editor, The Dove Foundation
The Game Wave game system is a treat for the entire family. Not only will kids, especially teens, enjoy the trivia based video games, but parents will too.
My fourteen-year-old son Daniel and I recently hooked the game up to play and we learned some things about this particular game system as we went along. First of all, it is very easy to connect. You use the red and yellow and white A/V cables and hook them from the game to the TV. You put in the AAA batteries (included) into the remotes and power up the system. You are ready to go that quickly. It should be noted that four remotes come with the system so several players can play at the same time.
A game is included with the system, “4 Degrees-Vol. 1,” which is called “The Ultimate Arc of Trivia.” We didn’t play this one however. Daniel wanted to play “Rewind 2005” which is a trivia game based on that year. There are various categories to choose from including Pop Culture, Movies, TV, and Sports. He chose sports. He hit the tutorial at first but he thought it was taking too long (the impatience of youth!) so he jumped right into the game. “The graphics and video are awesome, Dad,” he said to me. One thing he did not care for, however, was that only approximately ten seconds were allotted to answer a trivia question, and if you waited past that time frame, the game moved on and you received no points for that question.
The game is based on a points system and the person who gets the most points by the end of the game wins. There are some choices you can select so as to make up some points later in the game.
Daniel didn’t fare as well as he had hoped. He is a big baseball fan, but when it comes to other sports his trivia knowledge isn’t as good as he initially thought. He chose another game to try, titled “Rewind – Relive the Events of our Past.” He did better on this one after he selected “Movies” for the category. He answered a question about Jamie Fox correctly and began to earn some points. The narration, video clips, and graphics are the strength of this game system, along with the various topics a player can choose from. There are several rules and choices and a look at the instruction manual which comes with this game is a good idea.
Although four remote controls are included with the system, there are games which up to six players can play. The choices of categories other than trivia include puzzle, word, and card games. There is a Bible trivia game edition available and a game of strategy. These must be bought separately.
Another helpful aspect of this system is an available website at www.playgamewave.com It would take a player quite awhile to get bored with this system considering all it has to offer.
Daniel liked the game, and said on a scale of one to five, with five being perfect, he would give the graphics of the games a four, which is a pretty good rating.
He found the game fairly easy to play but some time spent reading the instruction manual and watching the tutorials would be helpful. The game does move along rather quickly.
