TV Show King was one of my favourite WiiWare titles out of the selection of early games. It had some simple laughs, a "fun" style and a multiplayer mode that was brilliant for when I had friends over, which is why I was one of the few that was actually excited when a retail sequel was announced.
The basic gameplay is the same as the original - you answer seven multiple-choice questions, then get a chance to spin the wheel, resulting in either a win or loss of your current cash total. After three, six, or nine rounds (playable on either easy, genius or "king" difficulties), the top two players of the four go head to head, as you see who can get five correct answers first. It's all fairly simple, but it works really well. Every round, there's a "special event", where each correct answer for the subsequent question will receive an extra load of cash, and there's also a tactical element to the whole game as well, since you can also see what all the other players have chosen as well, giving you the chance to copy them and change your current answer (although slower answers do win lesser amounts of money), or even bluff, changing your answer at the very last second.
It's all very fun, and hardly an element of it has been altered from the original. The really dumb answers are still floating around, and you still get host Jerry's nice little memorable inputs every now and then. The wheel has also been left unchanged, there are still the "fun" flash light and scratch card rounds and you still get fifteen seconds to answer a question (although the timer speeds up when everyone has selected an answer). There is one new feature added to the "classic" mode though, which gives the losing player the chance to select a category every other round. These categories are the same ones used in normal play, and range from sport, to science and environment and entertainment. These questions are often easier than you may first think though, with a large amount of the questions being tailored to the region you are playing in.
There is the same single player mode from the original included as well. "Quiz Attack" is the mode that throws one question after another at you, until you get one of them wrong and lose the game. As with the original though, the game is still lacking in single player, and could definitely do with something exciting for those gamers out there who are friend-less. In addition to this, there are also three more modes, including multiplayer-only "Last One Standing", a slightly pointless team version of the original
It's not just the extra modes that have been given a revamping though, and you'll find that almost everything from the menus to the "set" design have been tweaked here and there, with updated animation sequences, (which can jitter slightly during transition) quotes from Jerry, and animated menu icons also improving the experience here over the original. There is also the removal of Mii's in this game, as you'll find yourself playing against more detailed avatars instead, which are chosen randomly before play. As if all this weren't enough, even choosing a Mii for yourself is easier now, with a bigger scrolling icon at the side of the menu. Plus, there is also a clearer and more precise high score menu, detailing everyone's top scores in each mode, on each difficulty.
Otherwise, the experience feels the same as the original. The backgrounds are the same, the music is the same, even the Wii Menu screen is the same, but those who never played the original (or those who really enjoyed it) should look no further than this remake, which more than ticks the boxes for a recommendable update - especially for a less than a tenner.