For those of you too young to remember, Keith Chegwin, used to be on a Saturday morning TV called ‘Swap Shop’.  He was short in stature, high pitched in voice and loud!  Over the years, not much changed and he even went on to host his own show called ‘Cheggers Plays Pop’, which is where I reckon this game got its inspiration from.

Anyway, the first thing you notice about the game is how long the initial screen takes to load; it’s like waiting for Christmas!  Slow was not the word, though that may have just been my machine struggling to read the disk properly.  When I finally got to the Main Menu, there was hardly anything there and the only notable option, worthy of a mention, is the ability to use a single controller for 1 or 2 players and the ability to use a Dance Mat.   Aside from the single player bit, the other two “controller” options are rather novel.  The Dance Mat, I don’t quite see it being anything other than a gimmick or a substitute for a second controller, but 2 users sharing a controller is quite clever.  Basically, one player uses the left trigger and directional buttons, the second player uses the right trigger and normal action buttons (O, X, etc).  You can have up to 8 players, but I get the feeling this would be extremely cramped using 2 controllers, for obvious reasons.  Each player though gets to choose from 16 different icons as their avatar and 12 different noises for their buzzer; naturally I chose the fart sound (anyone who knows me will understand that!).

There are then, 3 different game lengths to choose from (Short, Medium and Long) so as not to cause too much confusion.  I’ll start with the “Short” game, so after you choose who is going to be playing you’re introduced to the first of 4 rounds.  I started off with “Opening Night” in which you’re asked a question about a given image and have 4 possible answers to choose from.  The fastest correct answer wins the points, so it’s pretty standard stuff and there are 5-6 questions in any given round.  At the end of each round, the scores are totted up and players are shown a current “leader board”.  Onto the next round, “Star Turn”, which seems to be all around who recorded certain albums, again your asked the question and given a choice of possible answers which this time appear on the screen one at a time, for a few seconds.  Again, fastest finger wins and five or six questions later, you’re at the end of the round and getting the updated scores.  The third round was “Channel Hopping” and seems to follow the standard format, but with a twist.  You’re asked a question, given 4 possible answers and you choose one.  When everyone has selected something, you get to see all the answers and have a short time to swap yours, hence the title of the round.  The final round was “Final Cut”, which started with you being shown the 4 possible answers and the questions gradually revealed; fastest finger wins.  The winner is the one with the most points, simple.

The longer “Medium” length game, involves all 4 of the short game rounds and a couple of extras.  Firstly, there’s “Big Break”, which to be brutally honest is just another case of the questions asked and you choose from 4 possible answers, fastest finger first.  The other round is called “Type Cast” and starts with you being shown the question, 4 possible answers and a major clue is revealed one letter at a time, as soon as you get it, hit the relevant button, job done.  Finally the “Long” version includes all the above and two extra rounds named “Picture Show” and “Prime Time”.  In the first one, Picture Show, you get a question about a picture, 4 possible answers and the picture is gradually revealed.  The last one, Prime Time, is basically another fastest finger first, to answer a question from four possible answers.  Now I honestly thought this was going to be a kids game, but a lot of the questions (there basically all geared around music and movies) tend be aimed at older teenagers and above, so that was a surprise.