Knowledge is Power: Decades is a fun trivia game that, like its predecessor, wasn’t meant to be a longterm experience. It serves its purpose, brings some fun trivia (sometimes difficult trivia) to the forefront, and delivers a bit more variety when it comes to special moves in the game. It doesn’t try to change things too much from what made it work the first time around, so don’t expect something drastically different.
Wish Studios has brought out another edition of their Knowledge is Power game that they introduced to the PlayLink family less than a year ago. If you’re not familiar with the series, it’s an obnoxious game show format, where players answer trivia via their phones from the comfort of their living room. It can have up to four people at a time playing, and it’s a different take on what is essentially trivial pursuit. In between sets of questions, there are special lightning rounds that can help out a trailing player, as well as special power-ups that players can use against each other. It’s a quick and dirty way of playing trivia with friends.
Now that you’re caught up, Wish Studios has released a ‘Decades’ version of this same trivia game. The game comes equipped with decade-specific questions (80s/90s/00s/10s) that range from movies, pop culture, music, and other topics of interest related to each decade. This is kind of like an expansion to an already fun trivia game, with gameplay design not deviating too far off from its original inception. With that said, let’s get right into some additions for Knowledge is Power: Decades.
Like previously stated, the format of the gameplay is not far off from the original game. You still answer a set of questions that lead into a special lighting round (a couple of them), which eventually leads to a giant pyramid of questions at the end. The biggest difference in ‘Decades’ are the questions asked, which are specific to certain decade pop culture topics of interest, as well as the special moves you can use against your opponents. There isn’t much of a need to get into the questions, as they do come in a variety of shapes and forms, though nothing incredibly difficult. I will say that they do have some repeats here and there, so it’s not exactly filled to the brim with variety. Is that a bad thing? Probably not, as this was a problem back in the day when Trivial Pursuit was a ‘thing’. Eventually, you would run out of questions in that game and end up repeating or buying another set (those weren’t cheap). The cost of the PlayLink games is minimal compared to an 80s TP game. Anyway, there are enough questions to keep the action going for a little bit.
The real specialty with this one is the different characters and their special moves. The characters are just wacky looking Wallace & Gromit – type models. They are weird looking, but at the same time majestic in their own way. For example, I played a David Bowie/Paul Stanley from KISS in the 80s type guitarist. Outside of the cool lewdness of his shape, he was my wacky character that garnished goofy laughter from my kids. The game, something I didn’t mention above, takes your face and puts it on the character’s face at the beginning. There is no real reason this occurs, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t funny. It makes it personal, in a good way.
Anyway, getting to special moves, you can impede an opponent’s progress with special moves, which offer up some action to the trivia process. Before you choose a category, you can choose an item that will mess with your opponent. For example, in the first game, you can choose a green glob that will mess with your opponent’s ability to search through answers to a question. The opponent would have to physically wipe off the green glob to reveal answers they could choose. It’s time-consuming, but that’s the point. If both players answer the same thing, then whoever got to the answer first wins the most points, thus the special moves act as an annoyance.
In ‘Decades’, you still have the ability to use said items, but this edition of the game offers up things like a ‘bug’, which acts like a bug in the system and makes it hard to read answers, and/or a zipper snake, which forces you to unzip answers on your phone. There are some neat new items to choose from when you’re trying to be disruptive to your opponent. The flip side to that coin is a player positive special move. A player positive special move in ‘Decades’ involves a piñata that will give you more points on certain questions. If you choose the piñata, then it will double your points should you answer correctly, and be the only one getting the answer right. If you answer with the other player, then they get points as well, so it’s a chance to either score big or score mildly. The piñata is a real game changer, as it was this past weekend with my wife. She was beating the shit out of me in this game, then I pulled the piñata item to jump right back into it, and eventually win. She was so pissed.
Beyond these two items (questions/moves), the game stays the same, which is fine by me. Knowledge is Power: Decades is a fun trivia game that, like its predecessor, wasn’t meant to be a longterm experience. It serves its purpose, brings some fun trivia (sometimes difficult trivia) to the forefront, and delivers a bit more variety when it comes to special moves in the game. It doesn’t try to change things too much from what made it work the first time around, so don’t expect something drastically different.
