"Survey Says............It's Family Feud dammit, buy this game!"

"Survey says...."

Yes, you heard those classic words many times over the years. Whether it was from the original snob Richard Dawson, Ray Combs, the not-so-lovable oaf Louie Anderson, or uh, the old co-host of Tool Time, Richard Karne, those were the words that the classic TV game show Family Feud made famous. With its last console release appearing on the PSone several years ago, it is back to rule the video game quiz show market.

If you are unfamiliar with the game show, it involves two families who take turns answering very random survey questions. Each survey is polled to 100 people and the top answers must be guessed. There is a face-off to see which family can guess the more popular answer, the face-off winner then can choose for their family to play or pass. If the playing family cannot guess all the survey answers the opposing family gets one opportunity to get just one of any survey answers remaining in order to steal the points away. Rounds like this keep progressing, with points doubling and tripling in later rounds until the first family accumulates 300 points. That family then goes to the “Fast Money” round where two family members separately try to answer five survey questions each in hopes of getting 200 points so they can get the big money prize.

First off I want to get out of the way there is no authentic host represented here in the video game. I find this unacceptable, the only justification for this is earlier this year Family Feud went through a host change from Richard Karne to John Hurley. So in their place we get some no name generic host. He does do the show justice though by quoting all the same lines we heard over and over again from the television show such as “I have no choice, I'm DOUBLING the points!” and of course “Survey Says!”

The game plays just like how I described the television show does, though there are some drawbacks. For some damn reason you only get 10 seconds to type in your answer, now the timer does stop for a couple seconds while inputting each character of the answer, but it is just not enough thinking time to get the job done. There is one little workaround I am in favor of, and that is pausing the game before inputting your answer, though when playing against a friend it is a pretty lame thing to do.

There are only a few ways to play the game. There is a quick game option with shorter round and points limits to make for an even speedier game, then a regular game option, and online play. The online play is very lacking however in terms of community and options. There are no online win-loss records or scoreboards, or even communication compatibility for USB headsets and keyboards. All that is there is just options to search for a match or host a match, and to this day I spent about three hours hosting matches waiting for a opponent to play against, and have only had two opponents thus far. I know this is a budget title, but I have seen other budget titles for the PS2 have all these included online perks I listed and it is very disappointing to see the developers not take the little bit of time to add them.

The developers did throw us a small bone by including a slim, yet somewhat serviceable Family Editor. The creation options are very lacking in almost all departments and are by no means comparable to the amazing player editors I have seen in most wrestling and fighting games. By sorting through all the options I was able to create a very typical looking family that would compete on Family Feud that consisted of two young adults, the parents, and the token grandparent. At least the option is there, and there are even several clothing options to unlock as well. Speaking of unlockables, the coolest ones to work for are the retro studio sets.

Graphically, Family Feud has budget game written all over it. The studios look all right, and do justice to their television counterparts, but the character models are butt-ugly and I'd be stretching it to say they were of PSone quality. Aurally, the generic voice actor for the host gets the job done and sounds convincing, but there is no way to skip his rambling intros for each round. Also, there is only one annoying background track that is about 20 seconds long and loops throughout the duration of the game, why the developers couldn't just string together a few more half-assed tunes to play in other rounds of play is beyond my imagination. The only saving grace of the audio is the trademark “ding” manages to appear in the game when running down leftover survey answers after each round is over.

Family Feud fans like myself will enjoy this game no matter what, though not so big fans will probably be peeved at the crappy time limit for answer inputting and the very limited graphics and sound. But if you love the show, or just looking for a casual quiz show game, then Family Feud gets my nod, but it just barely made it on the survey.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/07/06