Outburst (PC)

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CNET Editors' Rating 5.9/10 Average Editorial policies >>

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Product Summary

This is a case of an interesting party game losing its magic when there's no party around.

Specs: ESRB: Teen; Genre: Puzzle; Elements: General Action See full specs >>

Price range: $9.00

Gamespot editors' review

Reviewed by: Tahsin Shamma
Reviewed on: 10/28/1998
Updated on:05/02/2000
Released on: 09/30/1998

There have been few attempts to turn party word games into PC games, and probably for good reason. The games that currently exist such as Scrabble and Boggle do fine because there is a material component (a board or dice with letters) that acts as a visual cue to the gameplay. But when you try to dress up a word game like Outburst, which only uses cards with witty comments and a "quirky" host, you're bound to run into some stumbling blocks.

Outburst is a verbal party game where players divide into teams and try to guess phrases/words for a particular topic. For example, if the subject is "Robert Redford films," answers like The Sting and The Natural are valid. However, the answers are preselected so that points are only gained for guessing the answers chosen by the game's creators. The game progresses through the various subjects, and each team tries to get more right answers than the other.

The trick to making computer versions of board games or party games work is the additional effort you put into the product. With Outburst, Hasbro added some extra flash to the game, but it's such a rip-off of the great You Don't Know Jack series that half the time you'll be thinking the game was made by Berkeley Systems. The announcer has that quirky tone. There are fake commercials between categories that offer outlandish and sometimes disgusting products and even animated icons (goofy exclamation points) to represent each team.

As for the questions, they're straight from the game. However, guessing answers is a legitimate strategy because the game only requires the first three letters for an entire answer to be correct. The topics range from the basic "Animals of the Cat Family" to the quirky "Movies Featuring Airplanes" or the moronic "Foods That Create Intestinal Gas." The variations in topics are numerous, but often you'll find yourself a little bored with the repetitive play that this game offers.

It's not a bad game, but it's not a good game either. This is a case of an interesting party game losing its magic when there's no party around. Unless you're desperate for a version of Outburst! you can play by yourself, you're better off sticking with other trivia and word puzzle games.