Hollywood Squares (video game)

Hollywood Squares is a multiplatform puzzle game based on the television game show of the same name. Versions were also released for MS-DOS, Commodore 64 and Apple II home computers, and look a bit different from the NES counterpart. The photo of the set on both the NES and computer versions is from the 1985 series pilot (the actual show had no gold stars on the studio floor and more elaborate risers for the cars).[1] The game is based on the 1986-1989 version hosted by John Davidson.[1]

Hollywood Squares
NES cover art
Developer(s)Rare Ltd. (NES)
Publisher(s)GameTek
Platform(s)Apple II
DOS
Commodore 64
Nintendo Entertainment System
ReleaseNES:
  • NA: September 1989
DOS:
Commodore 64:
Genre(s)Puzzle
Mode(s)Single-player; multiplayer (up to 2 players)

Gameplay

Players have to either agree or disagree with fictitious celebrities to earn squares and make tic-tac-toe.[1] Much like the TV series, winning one of the first two games is worth $500, the third game is worth $1,000 and the second game is always the "Secret Square" game. The winner then goes on to the bonus round, where they have to choose one of five keys and insert it into the proper car among the five offered.

Reception

David & Robin Minnick reviewed Double Dare and Hollywood Squares for Compute!'s Gazette and said "Any fan of the TV games will enjoy these 64 versions. And even if you're not a fan, we think you'll get a kick out of these games anyway."[2]

Jeff Hurlburt for RUN Magazine said "Maybe you won't toss out your trusty Trivial Pursuit cards, but they're sure to get a much needed rest. For information, value and just plan fun, it's three in a row for Hollywood Squares."[3]

Leslie Mizell for the Game Player's Encyclopedia of Nintendo Games said "Hollywood Squares doesn't have the necessary substance to be a videogame that remains enjoyable with repeated playing."[4]

Later releases

In 2010, Ludia released a game based on the 2002-2004 era of the show. The game features the voice of host Tom Bergeron and video clips of celebrities Brad Garrett, Kathy Griffin, Jeffrey Tambor, and Martin Mull as the center square.[5] The game was first released for the PC and Wii, followed by releases for iOS devices. In 2011, a port was released onto PlayStation Network. All versions have multiplayer options, except for the PC version. Much like the 2003-2004 season, each of the three games are worth $1,000.the second game is always the "secret square" round for a bonus $1,000. The winner from the best two out of three games goes to the bonus round where Tom will ask each celebrity a question while the player has to correctly either agree or disagree with their answer in order to remove one of the wrong keys from the pool of nine (the actual bonus round had a contestant choose a celebrity by correctly either agreeing or disagreeing statements about that particular celebrity). Then the player has to pick a key that would open the chest in order to win $20,000 plus a new wardrobe item for their avatar.

References
  1. Hollywood Squares game overview at MobyGames
  2. "Compute! Gazette Issue 73". July 26, 1989 – via Internet Archive.
  3. "Run Magazine Issue 71/page/n25/mode/2up". November 26, 1989 – via Internet Archive.
  4. "Game Players Encyclopedia of Nintendo Games Vol 04" – via Internet Archive.
  5. Moriarty, Colin (November 16, 2011). "Hollywood Squares Review". IGN. Retrieved May 24, 2012.
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