Mr And Mrs (DVDi)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Indifferent to it
Educational Value	Average
How good are the presenters?	Mildly irritating
How good is the content?	Poor
Value for Money	Satisfactory

Advantages:	Bonus Card Game, can be fun if lots of players
Disadvantages:	Limited fun, cheap looking, basic and a bit of a novelty

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

Mr & Mrs a TV game show that was on our screens throughout the late 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s in one form or another (Julian Clary the latest host). Although if I’m completely honest I don’t really remember the show at all, but the name does sound familiar.

The concept for the show is very simple. Couples come on the show and take it in turns answering the same 3 questions. If the second person can predict what their partner answered, they win. The idea is to see how much or how little they know about each other and to witness the arguments that result! That is basically it, this one isn’t rocket science.

The latest incarnation of the game is on Interactive DVD. I had some vouchers burning a hole in my pocket so we splashed out on this. It’d be a bit of a laugh, right?

>>>What’s in the box?

Packaged within a VERY pink box are all the ingredients you will need to recreate the “magic” of the TV show in your own home (apparently). There are actually two versions of the game in the box. The 1st being the Interactive DVD game and the other a more low tech game involving question cards and answer pads.

>>>DVD

As with all the Interactive DVD’s I’ve ever played, it’s as simple as shove the DVD in your machine and away you go.

The DVD has a very cheap and cheerful appearance. The menus and animations are very basic and it seems like the DVD was knocked together quite quickly and quite cheaply. In order to play the game you will need your remote control, so if it’s been lost down the side of the sofa you’d better dig it up, dust it down and change those manky old batteries! The whole game is incredibly easy to navigate and you only need to use the up, down, left, right and Ok buttons. There is an animated How To Play, which is quite annoying, but does explain the rules.

When you start the game you have the option of picking 1 – 4 couples to play. Each couple decides on a colour that they will use and take it in turns choosing Mr or Mrs from their colour and so on.

The partner answering the question will be shown a set of questions with the answers represented by cheap clip art images (really cheesy), while the other partner wear the rather fetching Blindfold. Once all 3 questions have been answered the remote is passed to the Blindfolded partner (with the blindfold now removed!) who attempts to predict the answers their partner has given.

This is where you really start to notice the ‘No Frills’ approach of the game. The game has no set length or option to set the game length so you have to remember how many rounds you’ve played and decide before hand how many you want to play or you’ll be at it all night! The scores can be checked at any time, but are very user unfriendly and basic is not the word. Scores are listed by couple and then by Mr and Mrs so you can see which couple has won and also who is the best overall. The problem is that you can’t see the scores in a nice table or all at once, you need to scroll through them as it only shows one score at a time. Therefore, to compare the scores in order to begin the mickey taking you either need a statistician handy or a piece of paper to jot down the scores, which is frankly ridiculous! (see the picture)

The DVD game, even with its cheap appearance, is quite enjoyable. If you are playing it as a couple, it becomes quite tiresome quite quickly and to get the most out of it you really need two or more couples. The fun of the game is to see how wrong couples can be about each other and the rows that ensue when one partner puts their foot in it, something that doesn’t really happen when it’s just the two of you!

The DVD game isn’t going to keep you entertained for very long even if you have eight players. It’s fun to put on and play for a few rounds, after this it is very repetitive and there isn’t anything on the DVD to encourage you to play. It is fun enough to get out every now and again, especially if you have guest over who have never played it before. If you want a game to play for hours you’d better stick with monopoly.

The DVD does have some short features showing the history of the show and some of the “funniest” moments. I’m not sure why this is included as it is a little out of place and isn’t particularly interesting, I don’t see how anyone could watch all the features once let alone more than once!

>>>Card Game

As you’d expect from the fact that the card game is also based on the TV show, the rules are the same, although the 2 cards explaining the rules are much more complicated than the DVD.

Any number of couples can play the Card game as you are not restricted by the DVD.
Split all the players in to teams of two and the odd one out becomes the Host, if you don’t have a gooseberry, one of the couples becomes the Host but can still play the game as normal.

Each player gets a Partner sheet and the Host takes, yes you guessed it, a Host sheet. The game comes with the Partner and Host pads which have plenty of sheets, but if you ever run out you can always use any old piece of paper.

Unlike the DVD game where couples take it in turns, the card game has all partners playing with each other (ooohh!). Thankfully, unlike the DVD each game has a specific length and consists of 3 rounds or 6 questions (at last some structure!)

The Host picks a question card and asks 3 questions to the 1st players who jot down their answers while their partners remain quiet and try not to peek at what they’ve just written. The answers and then collected by the Host and the same questions are asked of the silent partner and points are awarded by the Host. The sheets are then returned to the partners and the next round begins with the previous silent partner getting all verbal.

Each round consists of 3 questions, 2 of which are general to all players, but the 3rd question can be picked by the Host for each partner. The cards consist of 3 generic questions on the front and 4 further questions on the back that relate to the partner playing. Ther 4 questions on the back of the card are split into 4 categories, Adult Male, Adult Female, Young Female and Donkey. Ooops, that should have read Young Male, but I’m sure you could have seen that coming!

The game can be played by a single couple (eh!), which works exactly as the DVD game. You could also play the game in the exact same way as the TV show. Each couple take it in turns and the silent partner leaves the room during the questions and returns to answer the questions.

Although the Card game is slightly more low tech (and there really isn’t much in it!), it is a little more likely to keep you going for longer. The single couple game is quite boring and I’ve only played this once as it just isn’t as much fun. However, the game seems to get a lot more entertaining when two or more couples are answering the same questions. It’s nice that you can tailor the 3rd question to the person answering and this means that all ages can play. The only downside is that there is no need to use the Blindfold.

>>>Conclusion

The game is sold as the Interactive DVD with a bonus card game thrown in, but in my eyes it should be the other way around. The DVD game is more of a novelty and due to the lack of effort put into the menus and game you won’t want to keep playing it for more than a couple of games. The Card game though has more structure and if you have enough players is a lot more entertaining.

The game is fun in short bursts but it isn’t the sort of game you can sit down and expect to burn a few hours. The strange thing is that I enjoyed the bonus card game much more than the DVD, which was just too cheap and cheerful.

The DVD game is sold on it’s own for about £13, but getting the pack with bonus card game for £14.99 (approx) is a much better deal. I only bought the game because I had vouchers and nothing else to do with them at the time. If it were my own hard-earned cash, I wouldn’t buy this game, but if you regularly have guests over and want something that’ll provide half an hour of something different then this could be right for you. In concept the DVD game should be a great laugh, but in reality it is a disappointment and nothing more than a novelty. There are much better and more entertaining DVD games out there.