Reviewed: September 16, 2004
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Gathering

Developer
Topheavy Studios

Released: Augsut 31, 2004
Genre: Trivia
Players: 4
ESRB: Mature

8
8
8
8
8.8

Supported Features:

And with MTV renting out beach houses, Girls Gone Wild cameramen patrolling the beaches, and Topheavy Studios recruiting the hottest co-eds in Texas for their newest video game, what happens at Spring Break doesn’t stay at Spring Break. Watch out mom and dad, your daughter might just be the star of the latest video game.

The Guy Game is a game show modeled very closely after MTV’s Street Smarts where a host conducts man-on-the-street interviews, asks questions, and very often gets some humorous responses. In this game the contestants are all women ranging in IQ and cup size, more than 60 girls in all, who must answer correctly or flash the crowd when wrong. So prepare yourself for the ultimate Spring Break party game.

The Guy Game will likely be dismissed as juvenile, childish, demeaning to women, and even “dirty” by some. Yes, the game is Mature, yes there are naked boobies, and yes, there is plenty of swearing. It’s basically a small nugget of Spring Break captured and put onto a disc for you to enjoy with a group of beer-swigging friends. If bare bouncing breasts offend you then go pick up Trivial Pursuit: Unhinged, otherwise please continue.

While The Guy Game is certainly banking on the “nudity factor” to sell this game I’m here to tell you that topless college girls isn’t the reason you should get this game. I mean; do you really want to pay $40 to see 60 girls in relatively innocent situations. You can download much more “extreme” content from a million websites for free. The reason you want The Guy Game is because it’s a total blast to play.

The first thing to do is choose how many people are playing and select a “cheerleader” for each player. There are several hot women to choose from and others will become unlocked as you play the game. These girls are really nothing more than menu eye-candy that will slowly strip down the better you play. If you do really well they will perform a sexy dance for you at the end of the game.

There are 20 episodes of The Guy Game included on the disc. Think of each as its own game show filmed lived in South Padre Island in Texas. The episodes are divided into five sets of four and only after you finish one set will the next unlock. The same goes for episodes within each set. Each episode plays out identically each time you play (after all, this if FMV), but there is an option for an alternate trivia list for a unique second pass, so essentially you have 40 original episodes to play.

Each episode is divided into four sections. You start with the Foreplay Round, which consists of 12 trivia questions. Not only must you try to answer these questions quickly and correctly, you must also predict if the girl on the beach will get the answer right or wrong. Sometimes this is easy, say a Star Trek question, or something about computers, but other times the audience (at the beach) will be shouting out answers so even if the girls were going to get it wrong, she might get it right and screw up your bonus points.

Bonus points are awarded by quickly deciding if the girl will answer correctly and these points are used to fill up the Flash-O-Meter. The higher this meter goes the more naked your cheerleader gets and the less censored, the girls on the beach become when they are required to flash for wrong answers. You can only increase this meter by predicting the girls’ response and your goal is to get the meter from “Soft and Squishy”, to “Sorta Chubby”, and finally to “Super Stiff”. At this point the meter smashes and uncensored boobs are available for the rest of the episode and for any future replays.

Yes, there is some censoring but don’t freak out – it’s part of the game. Think of it as the “tease factor”. You start off with a Guy Game logo strategically placed over the good stuff then you move on to pixel blurring and finally, unrestricted access to more boobies than a year’s subscription to Playboy.

The next round is the Ballz Games, which are mini-arcade games that test your reflexes and your blood-alcohol content. BallzShots is basically Skee-Ball with moving targets. BallzIn and BallzOut have you trying to shoot your ball through your opponents’ goal, much like soccer or trying to knock as many neutral marbles off the playing field while trying not to fall off the edge yourself. These are surprisingly fun and challenging, and you can access them from the main menu and practice before your friends arrive.

The third round is the Titwitz Round. In this round the girls are always going to get the answer wrong, which means a lot of “flashing”. Your job is still to answer the question correctly for your own point total, but now you must figure out which one of the two possible wrong answers the girls chose. These final 12 questions are your last chance to max the Flash-O-Meter.

Assuming you do well enough you will unlock the forth and final round, the Hottie Challenge. This is a sporting event of sorts that will have all of the girls from the episode competing in some physical challenge like a sack race, jump rope, or blue ball bounce. Naturally, the girls are encouraged (and rewarded) for performing topless. It’s your job to pick who you think will win the challenge and wager all or a portion of your current cash. Then sit back and watch the jiggle-fest. Obviously, since these are pre-recorded events they don’t maintain their initial excitement on future replays.

First and foremost, The Guy Game is a trivia game. It’s a lot like those networked trivia machines you see in bars. You are given four possible answers and the timer (which is also your points) quickly counts back as wrong answers are removed from the list. The quicker you answer the more you score, assuming you get it right. The same goes for the bonus point counter when trying to predict the hotties’ answers.

There are also some bonus opportunities during the countdown process like Bonus Match Point, Roulette, Random Bonus/Penalty Coins, and even a Simon-Says G-Spot Coin where you try to match a pattern with the D-pad. These are all optional.

There are also Ass Savers. These come in three types and each player gets one of each to be used during the entire episode. Double Up will double your bet when you are sure you know the answer. Headbutt will double one of your opponent’s bets when you are sure they are going to get it wrong, and Immunity gives you a full $800 even when you miss the question.

With a multiplayer game you get a few extra features you don’t see when playing alone. First, you all have rankings starting from President all the way down to Asshole. You determine your initial standings by doing a simple high-card draw. The President is the one who picks the Ballz games. They also make the party rules. These are optional rules that are traditional in real drinking games. Obviously, the game has no way of enforcing these rules, but it’s a cool feature to have if everyone agrees to abide by them.

Rankings also give players certain commands. The Asshole can make some hilarious farting noises with the left stick. These are fantastic and I nearly fell off the couch laughing so hard. The President can temporarily replace another player’s cheerleader with a fat guy, or have Lucky Lacy taunt a specific opponent. And any player who outranks another player can bitch-slap their subordinates.

Scoring is also affected in multiplayer since all scores are factored in when moving that Flash-O-Meter forward. If two people answer correctly and two don’t they could cancel each other out. It’s the sum of all the positive and negative point values that keeps the game going.

The Guy Game is simply a blast to play, whether you are alone on a dateless Friday night, or have a group of guys over drinking beer. There are more than 1,000 questions and many are quite challenging. I actually learned a few things I never knew and even a few things I didn’t really care to know (like how many calories are in a teaspoon of semen).

But there are also all sorts of subtle touches that are simply brilliant. In one episode there is a particularly busty contestant who is obviously surgically enhanced. The commentators (yes, there is play-by-play) who normally use the electronic chalkboard to highlight the instant replays now switch to this high-tech 3D wire-mesh of a female form (picture the scene from Weird Science) as they conduct stress tests before she picks up the jump rope for the Hottie Challenge.

There are plenty of slow-motion replays that really demonstrate the effects of gravity on the female form. Science majors will certainly find the game educational and stimulating at the same time. There is also ample use of alternate camera angles. The whole game (and game show) looks like they had just as much fun making it as I did playing it.

Outside of the FMV portions, the rest of the game is very colorful and nicely designed. Text is large and easy to read. Menus are animated and all of the bonus gadgets are integrated into the game screen. There is plenty of ambient animation, sliding menus, and even some fancy particle effects. It’s a surprisingly polished packaged for what could have easily been a throwaway budget title.

Since the girls are amateurs you really can’t rate their performance. It was nice to see a wide range of enthusiasm and even some shyness from the various girls, but they all seemed like good sports. No one looked wasted or coerced into doing this.

The game show portion is hosted by Matt Sadler who is energetic and certainly has a way with the ladies. You almost believe he feels sorry when the girls are required to flash the cheering crowd, and he’s not above tossing insults at the audience. Steve and Dick are the two guys doing color and play-by-play commentary and Lacy is there for all the narration and pre-question banter. You are even taunted when you miss multiple answers. “What’s the matter? Don’t you want to see titties?”

The game does mix up the answer locations so you can’t simply memorize buttons. You actually have to read and pick your response. $40 might be a bit pricey, but it’s still cheaper than actually going to Spring Break.

So come for the girls and stay for the fun. The Guy Game is a total blast, and even though I enjoy see Eric Cartman getting an alien anal probe as much as the next guy, Chef’s Luv Shack has just been replaced as my all-time favorite party game. Hopefully we’ll be seeing yearly installments of The Guy Game with fresh co-eds ready to flash the masses.