Trivia Throwdown

For as long as I can remember, I have always loved trivia competitions. I don't care if it's random questions at a bar, a long-running television show or a video game that mocks me for getting the answers right, I love it all. That's why I was so excited to play Trivia Throwdown, a clever new mash-up that combines the beat 'em up action of a fighting game with the brain-busting fun of trivia night. That's a cool concept, but is the debut release from Eclectic City Games able to live up to its potential?

This is a simple game to understand: It's a trivia competition with elements you might see in a fighting game. What that translates to is a life bar, combo attacks and special moves. But don't expect Trivia Throwdown to be the next big attraction at EVO, because the emphasis here is squarely on the questions and answers. You play this game for the trivia, not to count frames and pull of 20 hit combos.

The idea is to pick a character and ascend a number of difficulties named after famous mountains. You do this by taking on the opponents and beating them twice, which means getting enough right answers until their life bar drops to zero. The trick is that the questions are asked to both fighters at the same time, so it ultimately comes down to who knows more about random subjects. If you know the answer and the other player doesn't, then you'll get in a hit and take down a bit of their life. If you can pull off several right answers in a row, then we'll sneak a second attack in there without them looking.

On top of the basic back-and-forth, we'll also unlock special moves that can be used if you're in a tough spot. For example, we'll slowly earn a chip that allows us to double up on the damage. It's a wager based solely on the category, and it could pay off in a big way if used correctly. There's a second move you can use that will reshuffle the questions and give you three new categories. Both of these can be used strategically to take out the opponents.

You may end up using that reshuffle move a bunch of times, because the categories are all over the place. There are more than 2,500 questions in the package, including some oddly specific pop culture categories that include everything from video game bosses to classic sitcoms to grunge music. You also get a lot of sports, geography, history and political questions. What's jarring about the game is that we'll immediately go from The Legend of Zelda to questions about the September 11 attacks. The categories go in some dark and questionable directions, and I wish the selection was curated more for this type of game.

And I think this is the part of the review where the whole concept comes crashing to the floor. As a game about answering questions, Trivia Throwdown is pretty good. The categories are a little too broad and the difficulty swings wildly in all directions, but it gets most of the basics right. Unfortunately, they don't add enough of the fighting elements. It would have been fun to see other mechanics from the genre seep into the design, like reversals, blocking and maybe even finishing moves. This is a good first attempt at the mash-up, but there's so much more they could have done with the idea.

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It also would have been nice to see a wider variety of characters to choose from. You know how games like Street Fighter, Tekken and Mortal Kombat would feature large casts full of unique and diverse characters? Unfortunately, there's nothing like that here. The limited cast is made up entirely of generic ninjas and street brawlers, none of which have anything resembling a personality. I couldn't name a single character in this game without looking it up; they are that memorable. And worse, they're all men. Every single character in this game is a dude. And not even an interesting dude. If this were a fighting game, nobody would take this cast seriously.

But even with the lame characters and odd selection of questions, the real problem is that Trivia Throwdown kneecaps itself with limited multiplayer options. This is the kind of game that would be perfect for streamers, especially if you could get the audience to keep challenging you on Twitch. But there's nothing like that in this game. In fact, you can't even play online. You're basically stuck playing against people who can huddle around the computer, which feels like a huge missed opportunity. This game would have been perfect to stream.

And that's largely how I feel about most of this game -- it's big missed opportunity. Even the graphics are ho-hum and lack the kind of flair you would hope for in a one-on-one fighter. Where are the cool fireballs, piledrivers and spear attacks? Even the backgrounds are muted to the point of being entirely forgettable. I loved answering the trivia questions, but the fighting elements let this game down.