Papa’s Quiz is a game that tries different ways to spruce up the party game/quiz game genre, and it does a good job in most of its execution. It stumbles in the quiz question balance but excels in its creativity to personalize the experience for its players.
Party games are popular than ever right now thanks in part to people needing the connection (and we social presence) and thanks in part to the resurgence of JackBox. I’ve been on a roll lately with party games, as last week I reviewed What the Dub?, which was a charming game where people would dub over old movie clips and everyone would vote on the best dub. Simple fun that brought a new concept that may not have had a lot of substance, but it certainly did create shorts stints of a good time.
Continuing a now weekly trend of party game reviews, we’re taking on Papa’s Quiz from indie group Old Apes, which is a game that has the right formula to bring the goods and smiles. Let us dig right into it.
New Concepts and old ones
The gameplay in Papa’s Quiz does its best to bring some new concepts to the table in the party game genre. The first one is character creation. While you do get some choices with creative names in most party games, and only names, PQ wants you to create a character before you begin. In a Skyrim-lite construction manner, you get to pick hats, heads, bodies, and clothing that represent your player. The gameplay design here is akin to a paper doll, where you can mix and match your clothing to create a completely unique character. Do you want a pig-nosed hotdog girl with blond hair? You got it! Do you want moose antlers and a bikini? No problem! It is a fun concept that adds some flavor gamers did not know they needed to the quiz game genre.
Once you pick your character visually, you get to choose a name from a mix of names given. For example, my son’s name in this game was Uncle Crazy, two words that were in the system already and a combined name that the announcer does say. Instead of going the ‘Player 1’ and ‘Player 2’ route that JackBox does so well, we are given names we hear. So, it is personalized in a sense, while at the same time restricted to a list of names. While this is not a giant leap in a new direction, it does show some developers are trying different methods to entertain gamers and make the experience personal. I can completely dig that in concept and execution.
The second new way of doing things in this game is how players choose the categories they are going to be quizzed on. Old Apes felt the need to make the category selection competitive, so you are given four panels with topics and players push wildly on their buttons to move an arrow (and keep it there) over a specific topic to choose it. Your button mashing determines what you are quizzed on, which does add a weirdly interesting competitive edge to those who know material and those who do not. That is Mario Party effort right out of the gate, which is fine by me and neat that you get to literally compete on a topic against other gamers. It is a no brainer concept that should be used in more games. Not just a voting system, rather an actual competitive jumpstart to see who can screw over other players by pushing more buttons to get to the topic they are knowledgeable about (or maybe a topic that they know no one is knowledgeable about). Regardless, it is a cool new concept for the genre that I have not seen before. Simple, yet crazy innovative.
A third ‘interesting’ concept of the game is that the winner of each round gets to choose a dance that their character performs. While my wife and I found the entire concept goofy, we are old sticks-in-the-mud, the younger kids playing with us thought it was hilarious. It adds some in-between round flavor to the entire game, makes it light-hearted, and gives you a small amount of incentive to win the round. It is new enough to be included on this ‘new concept’ list.
The last crazy-new concept for this genre via Papa’s Quiz is how the final round is executed. The ending to the quiz game has everyone’s character on a giant cylinder block of goo or ice that will melt into a hole if the player doesn’t answer fast enough with whatever question is proposed. What this means is that if player A answers in 2.5 seconds, player B answers in 1.7 seconds, and player C answers in 5.6 seconds, then player B stands the chance of melting less…if they answered correctly. This not only puts pressure on the players to have the least number of seconds between ask/answer, but it also puts pressure on players to answer quickly and right. It is a bit intense, but that is the game and the genre. It is a good way to cap a game and it offers up an additional layer of obvious depth to a genre that is running out of it.
What are the knocks against this game?
The available questions are a bit hodge-podge. This means that the variety is nice, but it seems to be really a hit or miss design. For example, there are wonderful categories about insects and such, movies, and a whole lot that you would want in a party quiz game…and then there stands Roblox. Why is Roblox a category? I get the younger audience will take it in and answer it, and maybe it is there to get the younger players feeling good about themselves, but it is incredibly niche. Party games should cater to everyone playing and should not isolate folks. Roblox is not a category for everyone. Once in a blue moon, you will get categories like this and they bring down the excitement in Papa’s Quiz. The flipside to this is that I felt bad when a WWII question came up and my young son just stared off into the distance. He has not gotten to World War II yet and all its intricacies. Anyway, the quiz categories need a bit more balance to them to involve everyone and isolate no one, which is the trick to party quiz games. Maybe the developers can ask the ages of the players in their character creation, which will hit some sort of algorithm that determines which questions to include? I think it would be worth it, especially since the game is geared towards all ages.
The other knock I have about this game, and it is a rude knock, is the host. While I like how the host is certainly happy and awesome, it sounds so much like he is reading from a script. The emotion is there, but that is locked behind the need to stay on script. Old Apes needs to go back and let that guy redo his audio and use the words he feels comfortable saying. He needs a bit more excitement, some hop to his step, and needs to get the crowd going. His voice is nice, but his enthusiasm is just restricted. Get a re-record of that guy and get more energy going in the room. Having a funny and goofy host is expected in party games these days (blame JackBox). Again, his lines are nice, but his delivery seems stuck behind his lines. This is a small complaint, but one that possibly could be addressed.
Conclusion
Papa’s Quiz is a game that tries different ways to spruce up the party game/quiz game genre, and it does a good job in most of its execution. It stumbles in the quiz question balance but excels in its creativity to personalize the experience for its players.
