Wheel of Fortune Deluxe
TV gameshows are generally not too hard to translate for other countries. Just slap in an irritating presenter, iron out any national quirks and the viewers will all assume it came from their country in the first place anyway.
However, there's something about Wheel of Fortune that can't help but feel all-American. Even the title sounds better delivered in a trans-Atlantic tongue. And there are two words sufficient to put anyone off a UK Wheel of Fortune re-birth though: 'Vernon', and 'Kay'.
The game itself is not far removed from hangman, big spinning wheel aside. Although there are some differences between rounds, each is roughly based around uncovering a name or phrase, letter by letter, until the whole thing can be worked out.
There are two central round types within the main game mode. In the first, the letters reveal themselves every second automatically and it's up to the contestants to buzz in to complete the puzzle.
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The second round is a little slower. Here, the wheel is spun at the start of each round.
Around the wheel are various point bonuses and free spins, as well as the dreaded bankruptcy. Assuming you don't land on this or the 'lose a turn' square, the point figure you landed on will be the amount you can win by successfully guessing a letter that's in the word or phrase.
The look of the wheel is perhaps the best thing about the game. That's not intended as a slur either. It looks just like the real thing and spins around fluidly. That doesn't mean you won't skip watching it, yawning, during an opponent's turn, but it's pretty authentic.
Considering it's a turn-based quiz game, it's a little baffling that multiplayer wasn't included. That said, I've yet to see two commuters passing a handset back-and-forth of a morning for a quick bout of quizzing.
To counteract the lack of multiplayer, however, there's a couple of extra single-player rounds included.
The first is just the main game mode but played without any AI opponents. An oddly lonely experience, it avoids waiting for your opponent's spins but leaves your own spin feeling rather pointless.
More successful is the quick Toss Up mode. Here, you're given a series of the words or phrases that reveal themselves letter by letter.
The challenge is to see how many you can guess in a row. It's fairly tough, so you'll be doing pretty well if you get beyond, say, one.
Wheel of Fortune Deluxe is a faithful adaptation of the TV show, but certain aspects fall short when placed in the mobile game context.
Since every game is a separate entity, you can't ever care that much about what square you land on in the wheel - as long as it doesn't take away your turn.
The AI is no replacement for a multiplayer mode either, especially when your opponent completes a phrase just as you're on the cusp of twigging it.
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