Gamewave......NUON reborn?

[OldSchoolGamer]

Saw an ad for this on G4, reminded me of the failed NUON DVD system?

http://www.zapitgames.com/

[98PaceCar]

I got one of these for Christmas along with all of the games available. I wouldn't necessarily compare it directly to the Nuon as there are no real arcade type games for it now. It's more a Trivia/family game system.

But, it does a great job with what it's trying to be. The multimedia trivia games play very similar to the NTN games you would see in bars. It also has a Yahtzee clone, Boggle clone, and a Blackjack game with a couple more coming (one looks like Wheel of Fortune and one looks like Bejeweled).

I didn't expect much from it, but I took it to my girlfriend's house for New Years Eve, just in case. We ended up playing 7 of the games for a total of 5 hours that night, so I can say that it's easy enough for non-gamers to get into. The games are fun and interesting enough to keep you coming back to play again.

[Bojay1997]

It looks like they are now listing Gemz on their website which looks like a bejeweled clone. Kind of an interesting system and it's still on sale for $50 at a few places on-line. I think I'm going to pick one up.

[slapdash]

Yeah, I doubt it'll be a big success, but I had to grab one and all the games because, well, I'm obsessive, but also we're a Boggle family, so I figured the Letter Zap game at least would be fun.

We should start a pool on whether Click! and Gemz will be released or not...

[98PaceCar]

I think Click may have a better chance of being released than Gemz. I've seen footage of Click on an in-store demo reel that Toys R Us was showing. Course, the games that are out now are the same ones that were out a year ago when I first found the GameWave, so it may already be on it's way out. Hope not, but I can't see it going very far. Even at $50 for the system, there are still a ton of them on shelves around here.

[PDorr3]

Hmmm this does kinda remind me of the nuon, I didnt even know this thing existed. Heres a question, can this actualy be considered a game system such as the NUON or sega Pico, and maybe get a spot on DP's database?

AAnyway anyone else have any info on this thing? impressions? also what are the game prices?

[98PaceCar]

In my opinion, it does count as a system. It has games stored on removable media, renders at least some of it's own graphics, and has removeable controllers (at least that's how I define a system).

Toys R Us was selling them for $49.99 over Christmas, but I believe that sale is over now and the price is back up to $99.99. The base system comes with the player, 4 remotes, a remote storage thing, hookups, and the first volume of The Arc Of Trivia. Right now, there are 7 other games with 2 more on the way. I believe all of the games are $19.99, but the Lock 5 game may still be $24.99 (that's what it shows on their website).

Zap 21 is a blackjack clone with 2 varieties of blackjack. One is a traditional Vegas style blackjack and the other is a Quickdraw, where all of the players get the same card at the same time (players have 4 hands going at once with the only goal to make a blackjack or have 5 cards in a hand).

Letter Cube is a boggle clone with 2 varieties. The first is a 3 round game where each player has their own cube. First player to 10 words ends the round or there is a time limit. The cubes rotate between the players. The second game has all the players working from one large cube. As a word is completed, the letters use change. This is a TON of fun with 4 people as you will end up spending as much time trying to change the letters that your opponents are using as you will finding words on your own.

Lock 5 is a yahtzee clone where all the players use the same dice. Bonuses are given out early in the rounds to encourage players to do different things with the dice they are given (ie, you can get a 10 point bonuses for getting a full house or something like that). Very fun as well.

The other 4 games are trivia. There is the Arc of Trivia volume 2 and Bible edition. This is an NTN style game where you are given 4 possible answers and clues are provided as time counts down. If you get it wrong, you lose points. There is also a bonus round where you have to put events into chronological order. The remaining 2 games are Rewind and Rewind 2005 which are both very similar to the Arc of Trivia, but allow for a certain amount of re-guesses as well as having 2 bonus rounds instead of 1. One of the bonus rounds has you figure out which of 3 possible news headlines is true and the other is a true/false question. For both of these, you can bet 300, 600, or 900 points. If you get it wrong, you lose the points. All of the trivia games are full multimedia with sound, video, stills, and animation.

They also offer a 2 remote pack to bring the total number of players up to 6 in the trivia games (the other 3 only allow 4 players each).

I won't say this is a ground breaking system, but it is a lot of fun with a group of people. I'm glad I got it when I did as I doubt it sticks around a whole lot longer, though I hope they get more games out for it before it dies!