Zhadnost

This just in from Bizarrnian state radio. "Attention, people of Bizarrnia. The government has fallen...and that means you can win cash and valuable prizes on the all-new, all-capitalist People's Came Show!"

Zhadnost: The People's Party is a wacky 3DO TV-style gameshow set in Bizarrnia, an Eastern Block country recently freed from a repressive but goofy communist regime. The result is a sometimes hilarious tour de farce.

Revolution or De-Evolution?

They aren't kidding about the "party" in the title. First of all, this CD requires two players with up to four players possible. You choose characters from five bizarre Bizarrnians, and players compete two at a time.

Secondly, the humor is campy, adult in its sensibility, and definitely best served to a group audience with full laugh bladders. Finally, the challenge is decent, but it clearly depends on competitive human interaction to make it fun.

The "show" features five entertaining games with an end-of-round strategy contest where you can build up a cash prize. The standard games include Eye Spy and Lip Service, audio and visual forms of Concentration; Propaganda, a multiple-choice pop-culture trivia quiz; Troika, a match-the-shapes game; and Yankee Stooge Cinema, a jigsaw-style game where you piece together,ap animated film clip. To help pump up the drama, all the games have time constraints.

Commies for Comedy

Zhadnost's graphics and sounds are a blast. The game-show set features an outlandish high-tech design, and the costumed actors stage outrageously visual performances. Obscure film clips from the '40s, '50s, and '60s add weird, comedic flair.

The audio tickles the funny bone, too. The announcer and show host are over the top, as you'd expect. Likewise, the five contestants serve up fun-loving vocal stereotypes, from a secret police interrogator to a wise-guy hoodlum. The music runs wild with a catchy, retro-punk, electric-guitar-and-drums homage to the Ventures.

Socialism for The Silly

Do you have occasion to throw social gatherings prone to silliness? Party hearty with the People's Party.

The downfall of communism has had some bizarre side effects. Take, for example, this wacky interactive game show, where you, too, can live the capitalist dream.

As a citizen of the fictitious Eastern European country Bizarmia, you compete against up to three other players or the computer for mucho cash in the most popular game show on Bizarmia's 65,000 TV channels.

To win, you solve some of the more than 2000 puzzles, including full-motion-video jigsaw puzzles and pop-culture quizzes. Strange humor happily pervades this bizarre game.

Yep, it's Twisted with a twist. Set in a fictitious country in ruin, this game show has all the political intrigue of a Leave It to Beaver episode. Although not informative.

Contestants must compete in a wide variety of wacky and challenging games, requiring wit, dexterity and a good sense of humor. One play-through should convert even a prude to a loud belcher.

Not only are you up against the game-show host and his myriad of odd games, you are also in direct competition with the other players on the show. It's great to watch the witty dialogue fly.

FIRST IMPRESSION

I loved it. Of course. I was a diehard fan of its sorta-predecessor Twisted. The same goofy action and wild visuals will get you. as it did me. right away.

BEST FEATURE

Ya gotta love the little media clips thrown about. Each character has his/her own set of video clips as you progress further in the game.

WHATS MISSING

It's really hard to say. With a game like this, you don't know what to expect, as very few of its kind exist. It's just good, solid, wacky entertainment.

WILL YOU LIKE IT?

If you're a hardened level-by-level-gak-the-Boss-at-the-end-of-the-stage-and-get-power-ups kind of player, this game will more than likely not appeal to you. This game seems to be one of those party games, great for get-togethers with people of all ages.