Review of Telly Addicts

Introduction

Being one, I always used to love that series with Noel Edmonds. This latest edition is the third incarnation of the show as an interactive STB game, the so-called "TV Heaven" edition.

The pace of the game is somewhat leisurely, although that may have more to do with the interaction time of my Sony player than a fault of the game itself. The disc clicks and whirrs every time you press a remote button, especially at the end of the round when your score is calculated. The round of applause when your score is tallied up is slightly condescending, as is Mr Edmonds` behaviour when not-quite scoring so well.

I tried this game out mainly in single-player mode (for speed), and I`m ashamed to say, didn`t score all that well in any of the rounds except the one for reality tv - which surprised me as I never watch reality tv. Just shows how all-pervasive these b----y shows are, I suppose.

The thing that really stops this disc from having any real entertainment value is the fact that there is no real reward for scoring points - no special clip that only unlocks if you score higher than a certain level or anything like that. Instead you get a screen that gives you a number to text a multiple choice answer to, in the hope of winning a family holiday to Universal Studios Florida. You get this screen every time you play the game, and you can enter the competition as often as you like before the April 2008 closing date. Once you`ve played the game once, take a note of the text number and the answer and cut out the middle man, I`d say.

Video

Presented in 4:3, the graphics are gaudy. Noel Edmonds appears from time to time to give advice and scores in clips with a bluescreen background. Curiously, the few clips included in the disc accompanying questions are presented on the screen of a television set graphic, so they are not shown full screen or resolution. Quality is quite poor as well.

Audio

Dolby 2.0 Stereo. Quotations of tv themes in questions are presented as played on a cheap-sounding keyboard by somebody with only a passing acquaintance of musical notation.

Features

Technically none. No subtitles and all remote control functions except stop and eject are locked out by the disc.

Conclusion

Quite a disappointment, given how entertaining the original show could be. One of the highlights of the show was the inclusion of archive clips of classic tv shows. Sadly, the game has a low ratio of clips to questions, most questions being either graphical or those vox-pop jobs where somebody off the street describes a series and all but tells you the title in the first sentence.

Not much to test the little grey cells.