Red Dwarf-Beat the Geek (Interactive Game) (2006)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Game	Main Menu Audio & Animation Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	2006
Running Time	?
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	None Given
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$39.95	Music	None Given

    I have reviewed a few DVD based game discs, and so far they have all tended to suffer to a greater or lesser degree from taking too long between questions. This results in frustration while playing. Unfortunately, this game is no exception although it certainly does have some really good features as well.

    Obviously, this game is based on the excellent British comedy series, Red Dwarf and directly appeals to the large numbers of fans of the show. However, one of the best features of this disc is that even non-Dwarf fans can play and compete against their geeky friends. You can play either in one or two player mode but more importantly different people can choose to be asked different types of questions. There are three types of questions called Viewer, Geek & General Knowledge. When you are playing the two person mode each player can choose a different set. This means that someone with encyclopedic knowledge of The Cat's clothes can play against someone who has never seen Red Dwarf on a fairly even playing field. To my mind, however, the Viewer questions should be referred to as Geek and Geek should be SuperGeek. I am a fan of Red Dwarf and have watched all the episodes more than once, however, I found even the viewer questions quite hard. Footage from the show is used along with sound bites in all three categories. In general knowledge, the footage based questions require no prior knowledge of the show. They only require observational skills. The general knowledge questions can be a little too UK & Europe focused.

    Your hosts are the two Holly's and you can choose which one of the two commentates on your prowess or lack of it. There are 48 questions asked in 8 rounds and then if you get all 48 correct you are asked two bonus questions. If you get all 50 right in one go you become a funky fifty player which gives you a code which allows you to access a bonus game. Four other bonus games are available for getting all the questions correct in particular rounds. These bonuses apply regardless of what sort of questions you choose. I gained access to two of the four bonus games, which frankly were a little lame. One was a memory test about what to order from the vending machine and the other one was an invisible maze.

    Overall, this is not a bad product and is probably the best DVD interactive game I have reviewed but that isn't difficult. If you and your mates are into Red Dwarf you could have a lot of fun with this over a few drinks.

Video

    The video quality is perfectly suitable for a disc of this kind. It is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.The only issue is with some of the footage from the show itself, which like the DVD releases of the show are pretty average. This is not a big problem however I did answer one question wrongly which asked me to answer what colour something was. I answered yellow which is the colour it looked to me, however, the answer was green.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is very good. Everything required for a disc of this sort was easily handled.

    This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

5 Bonus Games

    As I mentioned above 5 extra games can be accessed by achieving certain performance levels during the game. The two I got access to were not very entertaining.

Booklet

    A comprehensive book of instructions is included, which also contains some jokes.

     This disc is available in the same format in Region 2 but does not seem to have been released in Region 1 .

    The video quality is good.

    The audio quality is very good.

    Some bonus games are included but they are a bit lame.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall