Previous Next

Blocks, wedges, pieces of cheese, whatever you call the little coloured bits you put in your playing piece, Triv on the C64 is boring. Some of the questions are either so hard that only a Mastermind grand champion could answer them or so easy that even a contestant on Catchphrase would have a decent chance of getting them right.

The board is ugly, the colours are often indistinguishable (don't they realise the difference between a science and a history question can lose you the game). The sound is appalling which is more than just a nuisance because in this version loads of the questions involve trying to recognise a piece of music. It all sounded like the theme tune to Mastermind played on a comb and paper to me!

There's an irritating little blond man who 'talks' (well, it's better described as 'burbles') you through the questions. Thankfully you can switch him off, but those dreadful song questions still come back to haunt you.

The worst thing is that, like Pictionary, it's just too easy to cheat if you're playing on your own. And if you're playing with friends, you'd be much better off playing the real thing. It might be ten times more expensive, but the good thing about these intellectual games is that you can usually con some gullible oldie into buying them for you.

Worse than having to mime The Encyclopaedia Britannica when your Mum forces you to play charades with your smelly old Great Aunt.