Back in the Spring, Canadian gamers were treated to an early beta preview of 1 vs. 100, a new online trivia game show on Xbox Live.[rssbreak]
The game is based on it’s television counterpart, originally aired in the Netherlands, but replaces cash prizes with Xbox Live Arcade downloads and Microsoft Points. Trivia buffs will find an endless stream of challenges every night of week, with specialty rounds including current news, user generated and Canadian trivia.
Most nights players take part in fast paced rounds, not for prizes but as a form of qualifier for the live shows that take place Friday and Saturday nights. Those with the highest answer accuracy and fastest answers might be picked to be part of the 101 players that make up the live show competition while everyone else plays along for fun.
The premise is one player, known as The One, takes on one-hundred players called The Mob. All players choose one of four possible answers to a question. The One and the Mob have to get the answer right in order to keep playing. The challenge is for the the One to beat the Mob. The One has a series of help options to get them through the questions they’re unsure about but can also choose to take the current prize value and walk away. If the One gets a question wrong the remaining Mob members split the prize.
1 vs. 100 is quite possibly the future of game shows. The best part about watching game shows is playing along in your head and the self-satisfaction that comes from knowing the answer the competitors didn’t. Now viewers can be active participants and really prove if they are as good as they think. This is also a surprisingly fun game to play as a group, although the person with a controller needs to work out a system to decide who’s answer to go with as you only have seconds to make a choice.
Currently in beta in the U.S., U.K. and Canada, 1 vs. 100 provides a new kind of multi-player experience for those more inclined to exercise their cranium than their trigger finger.
