Review: Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? TV Game

Written on Nov 24, 2008 by Brian and filed under Jakks Pacific, Reviews

Jakks Pacific is well-known for their line of TV Games. They’re simple to use, just plug two cords into almost any TV, add batteries and you’re ready to go. While setting up the game is simple, not everyone will find the questions in Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? to be so easy. Modeled after the television show, gamers get to either show their skills or hang their head in defeat as they answer trivia questions out of kid’s textbooks.

Gameplay

The game is an adaptation of the popular television show. Much like the game show, you are challenged to answer questions that are straight out of textbooks from first through fifth grade. Questions cover science, math, geography, history and many other categories.

When the game starts, you can select a student to help you out. If you miss a question and your student gets it correct, they save you and you stay in the game. You also get two cheats, where you can take your student’s answer or peek at their answer to decide if you want to use it. It’s important that you try to leverage your student properly though, as each one has an area of strength, making them better suited to answer some questions than others.

The gameplay moves along fast enough and generally only requires the A button and D-pad, making it very easy to use. Players can opt for quick play which gets you into the game right away, or play with a profile, which records the scores and stats for up to five players. 

In addition to the main game, there are three bonus games. Stay in School lets you flip over cash amounts while trying to avoid the flunked out message. The game says the cash is added to your total, but there’s no way to save the amount to a profile, so the game isn’t very engaging or useful. In Survival Quiz you try to answer 5 questions in 20 seconds. So not only do you have the pressure of answering questions from kids textbooks, but you have to answer them quickly. This game is actually pretty fun and a nice departure from the longer main game. The last bonus game is called Back to School where you play as a student. This one also adds variety and is a worthwhile addition.

While the game is designed for one player use, it’s definitely more fun played with a group. One of the most appealing parts of the game show is the ridicule from the stands when questions are missed. And on your own there’s just not enough trash talk from Jeff Foxworthy. So playing with a group of friends or family really adds to the fun. That’s really where this game shines, in the group setting. Firing it up after a family dinner, or with friends over is the best use.

Bottom Line

Kids might enjoy playing this one, if only to remind their parents how much they’ve forgotten since Elementary School. But Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader? really excels when a bunch of friends or family crowd around to cheer (or harass) each person as they take their turn. For $20-25 it’s pretty easy to get enough entertainment out of the game to make it a worthwhile buy.

4 out of 5 stars

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