Pads & Panels

Title: Bezzerwizzer

Publisher: Mattel

Players: 2+ (2-4 Teams)

Ages: Adult

Time Per Game: 45 Minutes

MSRP: $29.99

Description

Bezzerwizzer sounds like something a drunken friend might say, but it’s actually Danish for “know-it-all.” This makes a little more sense, and sheds some light on the creation of Danish trivia game buff Jesper Bülow, whose game was brought to the United States by Mattel.

Like many trivia games, Bezzerwizzer allow players to fend for themselves or form 2 to 4 teams, answer trivia questions and progress around a board by getting the answers right to win. Bezzerwizzer divides its questions into 20 categories, but the twist on its Trivial Pursuit gameplay is that no dice are involved. Players randomly pull four category tiles from a bag before each round, and then some strategy comes into play.

Teams have separate mini-boards, with dots indicating 1 to 4 points. Players place the category tiles at the outset of the round on the four spaces, playing to their strengths and weaknesses. Don’t know a lot about design, but pulled the design tile? Place it down at the 1-point spot, while playing to the interest in movies by placing it on the 4-point space. Players ask each other questions, moving clockwise around the table, starting with the 1-point questions, and moving around to the 4-point ones. If the player gets it right, they progress that number of spaces. If they don’t, they stay put.

Each team also receives two Bezzerwizzer tiles and one Zwap tile at the beginning of each round. The former can be used to try to steal a question, either after it is read for 1 point, or before it is read for a possible 3 points. The team whose turn it is still gets a chance to answer first, and if they get it right, the opponent simply loses the Bezzerwizzer tile. If they get it wrong, the team that placed the tile gets a chance to steal, but if they get it wrong they move back one space.

The Zwap tiles allow a team, on its turn, to either swap a tile with one from another team, swap two tiles between an opposing team, or one each between two opposing teams. The first player or team to make it around the board wins. If no player or team makes it around the board on a single round, the category tiles go back into the bag, get mixed up and players redraw for another round.

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Kevin’s Komments

Bezzerwizzer is rather similar to Trivial Pursuit, but it doesn’t stand in its shadow. Some categories are dogs, but thankfully none of them are mandatory. My problem in Trivial Pursuit is trying to get the goddamned orange piece, but luck of the draw gives me the obscure question from the sports side of the Sports and Games category. The questions in Bezzerwizzer range from painfully easy to extremely obscure, which makes every category answerable. The Zwap and Bezzerwizzer tiles were largely ignored in the first few rounds, but soon were instruments in dicking each other over. They can be used to help your team or the Zwap can be used just to throw a wrench in the other teams’ plans with or without motivation. Anyone who is a fan of trivia games should have Bezzerwizzer.

Rating: YAY!

Bill’s Review

Kevin hit it mostly on the head. Bezzerwizzer is largely Trivial Pursuit, but the randomized category selection, ability to play to strengths and make weaknesses less of a detriment (or better yet, turn them into the weaknesses of an opponent), all go a long way in adding strategy to the formula. A majority of the questions are on the harder side of things, a la Trivial Pursuit, but a few incredibly easy questions found their way into the mix as well, making it a little less about playing to categories and a little more luck of the draw. Still, Bezzerwizzer is one of the better trivia games I’ve played in a long time, expanding on the old formula with new ideas that make it a lot of fun, especially with a group.

Rating: YAY!

Sarah’s Thoughts

I agree with the boys about the randomized tiles being better than having to correctly answer a question from each of six categories. I also thought that playing in teams was a little more fun, because it gives each team a better chance to know the answers and gets more people involved. Although, team play did end up raising questions about whether or not teammates who were on the question reading team but had not seen the answer could put in a Bezzerwizzer tile to steal.

Rating: YAY!

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Verdict

YAYs – 3
NAYs – 0
YAYs have it! Unanimous decision!

Pads & Panels received a copy of the board game courtesy of the publisher for review purposes.

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