Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? I would imagine most people. Sadly, I can’t make that that happen for you. But you can be a virtual millionaire by testing your knowledge and climbing the ladder to televisions biggest prize in Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, the card game.
I love trivia and quiz games and I loved watching the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire TV quiz show, hosted by Chris Tarrant (now Jeremy Clarkson), so I was quite happy to try out the card game version. For the most part I wasn’t disappointed.
The Who Wants To Be A Millionaire card game is a game for 3-4 players or teams, age 14+ with a playing time of 20-30 minutes. It comes as a handy travel sized deck of cards so that you can play it anywhere, making it a fantastic travel game as well.
In the box:
- 57 Double Sided Question Cards (114 Questions In Total)
- Money Ladder (in 2 parts/cards)
- Team Tokens (x4)
- Safe Haven Tokens (To Use On The Money Ladder) (x4)
- 4 Sets of Lifeline Cards (One for Each Team)
- 4 Sets of Coloured Answer Tokens (One For Each Team)
- Rules (2 cards)
On the TV gameshow Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, a single player tries to answer 15 general knowledge questions (without the aid of an audience member coughing) to race up the ladder from £100 to £1,000,000. If successful they can win £1,000,000 or can stop at checkpoints and take home either £1000 or £32,000. The Who Wants To Be A Millionaire card game version is slightly different than the TV show as it is played with 3 or more players/teams, competing against each other, to race up the ladder. In the card game version, there are only 12 questions to answer to reach the top of the ladder, the first checkpoint is at £1000 and the second checkpoint can be nominated by the players using Safe Haven tokens.
As with TV show, the card game also features four lifelines; Ask the Audience, Ask the Host, Phone-A-Friend and 50:50. Players can use each lifeline once per game.
The aim of the game is to be the first player or team to reach the top of the money ladder and correctly answer the one million pound question.
Playing is simple. The two cards that make up the money ladder are placed together on the table. Each player or team places their Safe Haven token against the money value they want to be a second checkpoint (the first is already preset at the £1000 mark). Shuffle the cards and place them on the table.
Players take it in turns to act as the host and ask the questions and respond to any lifelines used. The host will take a card a read out the question (the answer is on the back of the card so be careful not to show it to the other players). Players, including the host, answer the question by putting down one of their A, B, C or D token cards face down to match the answer they think is correct. If they are want to use a lifeline, they place their the token they want to use face up on table in front of them.
Lifelines:
- 50:50 – If a 50:50 lifeline is played, the host looks at the back of the question card, being careful to hide it from the other players, and tells the player(s) who played the lifeline to two 50:50 options.
- Ask the Audience – If an Ask the Audience lifeline is played, the hosts looks at the back of the question card, being careful to hide it from the other players, and reads the audience percentages for each of the answers. Note that the audience might not always be correct.
- Phone-A-Friend – If a Phone-A-Friend lifeline is played, the player may physically phone a friend and ask their opinion on the question, or they may ask a person not participating in the game.
- Ask the Host – If an Ask the Host lifeline is played, the host reveals, to that player only, the answer they have given to that question. If the player chooses the host’s answer and it is correct, they both move up one position on the money ladder. If it’s incorrect, the player moves down to the nearest safe haven. The host does not lose their position on the money ladder for an incorrect Ask the Host answer.
When a player successfully answers a question, they move one place up the ladder. If they are unsuccessful with their answer, they drop down the ladder to the last checkpoint (could be the £1000 rung of the ladder or the one you have nominated with your safe haven token).
Overall, I have enjoyed playing Who Wants To Be A Millionaire the card game. It is very engaging, challenging and exciting, it tests your general knowledge and trivia skills. The questions are varied and interesting, covering topics such as history, geography, science, entertainment, sports and more. Some of them are very easy but others can be tricky, and you must think hard and consider the options before giving your final answer.
The lifelines are excellent and add an element of strategy to the game as you must decide when the best time is to use them and who to trust.
My only small niggle with this game is that the tokens used to play the game need to be cut out of the cards with scissors before you can use them to play. This isn’t a big problem, but I think having them precut or being able to push them out from the card would be much better, just to get the nice clean line and make them look neater.
I can highly recommend this game to anyone who loves trivia. It is lots of fun, more so than the TV show as you are not only racing to the million pound question but are competing against other players at the same time. It’s a great way to spend an evening with family or friends for game nights. And who knows, maybe you’ll even become a virtual millionaire!
Rating: 4.5/5
RRP: £9.99
For more information, visit www.gingerfox.co.uk. Available to buy from Amazon here.
