Review: Wheel Of Fortune Platinum - Should You Like To Buy A Vowel?
by Staff Writer
July 26, 2010
Overview
Wheel...Of...Fortune is on the iPhone giving you the game show experience on the go. Spin the wheel, guess letters, and solve the puzzles across multiple rounds just like on TV. Start with a couple toss-ups, go on to the first round, and then face the jackpot, mystery, and bonus rounds.
Features
There is the main TV show mode allowing you to play a complete game, plus there are toss-up and speed-up modes for shorter games. There is also multiplayer allowing you to pass n play, local multiplayer over WiFi and Bluetooth, as well as online. The game features 1200 puzzles and customizable avatars with additional in-app purchases for both.
The Good
This is the authentic Wheel of Fortune experience giving you the fun of the game show on your iPhone. The gameplay is fun when you're playing along with the TV show, and much more fun when you're in control of the game. The mechanic is great giving you a hangman style word game combined with dollar amounts for letter choices, and the competition of other players.
The regular game show mode is tons of fun with the quickness needed for toss-ups and the skill needed for the longer puzzles. There are always new elements on the board to try spin to collect, and you always have to be careful deciding between solving and being greedy by spinning more. There are tons of very challenging puzzles that aren't typical of the game show, and are actually pleasantly tougher. There is a great feature allowing you to skip other players turns to speed up the game quite a bit.
The game show is plenty of fun, and you can find yourself playing the single player mode over and over with simple fun gameplay that you're most likely familiar with. Then you can begin multiplayer which makes the game really good, because it's all about playing with friends and not simply computer opponents. Online play connects well though there are occasional hiccups, and there are also online high scores.
The visuals are well done with great art style giving you a very authentic looking version of TV set. It's great seeing the wheel spin though it does stutter along its path, and it's nice to have avatars, but the ones included look rather terrible. There are the authentic sounds of the game show with the opening, spinning wheel, and different game modes.
The Bad
As authentic as the game style is, there is a lot lacking from the true TV show experience. The biggest problem is that you will land on Bankrupt more often than not, and the only difference in difficulty is the number of times you land on Bankrupt or Lose a Turn. It really takes the fun out of the game with so many bankrupts which is especially odd when the computer opponents do it right after you.
Authenticity is also lost on spinning the wheel. It doesn't seem to matter if you spin it fast or slow as the wheel has a predetermined destination, and sometimes it even picks up speed as it goes. Also missing are Pat Sajak and Vanna White, and what is Wheel of Fortune without them?
*The game played without hesitation for the most part on my non-jailbroken 3GS running 4.0.1, but there are some complaints in the App Store about freezing and crashing.
The Verdict
Wheel of Fortune is a fun game style, and it's reproduced well on the iPhone. There are plenty of puzzles that are nice and challenging whether you're playing solo or with others either locally or online. There are a few problems with the authenticity of the game from spinning the wheel and bankruptcies.
Wheel of Fortune Platinum is worth $1.99, and even more depending on how much of a fan you are of the game show.
