With the addition of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? to the Xbox 360's growing stack of quiz games, you have yet another solid collection of questions to dip into. Though you lot might scoff at the price of 1,200 Microsoft points, your 15 bucks goes a long manner in this well-realized Xbox Alive Arcade adaptation of the popular TV gameshow. The broad diverseness of subjects, the seemingly countless questions, and a stellar vibe that fully brings the elementary-school-themed telly evidence to life brand Are You lot Smarter Than a fifth Grader? a worthy inclusion on your list of downloadable games, a few minor hindrances notwithstanding.

For the most part, the questions strike a healthy balance. Some of them...not so much.
For the most part, the questions strike a healthy remainder. Some of them...not so much.

In an endeavour to win the million-dollar prize, y'all'll reply a serial of 10 questions based on 21 unlike grade school subjects. From animal scientific discipline and social studies to vocabulary and astronomy, the varied list gets mixed upwardly every fourth dimension you start a new match to keep things fresh. Because of the game's all-encompassing catalog of questions spread out over five difficulties, ranging from "1st Class" through "fifth Grade," chances are slim that repeat multiple-option and true-or-false questions will pop up. Before you pull the prize from the easily of the show's host, bluish-neckband comedian Jeff Foxworthy, you'll have to select one of the fifth course "classmates" to help you out during each two-question round. Adulterous past peeking at your classmate'southward paper for assist, or flat-out copying an answer, is a viable pick and a safer alternative to guessing, for example, what the Peruvian currency might be. If y'all manage to go something wrong, which is all it takes to get kicked off the podium for expert, your classmate tin can proceed you lot in the game by backing you lot up with the correct response.

The five fictional students each have two preferred subjects, simply y'all can't always rely on the elementary assistants; even the titular fifth graders can be wrong. Describe on your cheats sparingly and appropriately, though, because you can use each of them but once. You might want to save them for some of the tougher questions or for when you lot're offered extra credit and a hazard to win star stickers. These don't do much other than give you something to show off on your study card, just they do offer achievements if you're looking to fluff your gamerscore with encephalon power.

These hooks add to the enjoyment of answering 5th Grader's diverse questions, which range from brain-expressionless like shooting fish in a barrel to mind-bogglingly difficult. Don't be surprised to find yourself staring at your screen wondering if Foxworth swapped a couple of quiz cards with Jeopardy's Alex Trebek. These anomalies hamper the simplistic fun of testing your noesis against yourself, because some truly challenging questions can put you out of the game. Most people honey a flake of difficulty in their questions, but because how vague some of the questions are--does "big" mean landmass or population?--it'due south sometimes too hard to nail down a correct answer. That has always been the kicker of the gameshow. But you've got to wonder whether 5th graders are really beingness taught about Norse mythology or how to convert miles into kilometers from retentiveness.

If you want to butt brains with your buddies, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? offers a cracking multiplayer that's both local and online. Up to four players can go head-to-head in turn-based quizzing, and while it's somewhat tiresome to sit and watch someone else answer a question, the trash-talk-a-thons that ensue will probable keep the family-friendly competition going. Multiplayer offers a slightly dissimilar approach to the game in that each actor is graded from A through F at the end of each friction match. Though the actor with the almost money at the cease is e'er the winner, the score is dictated by how quickly you answer each question, how little you cheat, and how far upwardly the 10-question ladder you fabricated it.

Jeff Foxworthy in more high definition than you can handle (or ever wanted)!
Jeff Foxworthy in more high definition than y'all can handle (or always wanted)!

Are Yous Smarter Than a 5th Grader? allows the use of the Xbox 360's Big Button pads, which are packaged in with either of the 2 Scene It? games. These work well enough, but the implementation is extremely awkward. Whereas Scene It specifically built its interface around the vertically aligned face buttons, the two-by-two arrangement in 5th Grader stay the same no affair what kind of controller you lot're using. Strangely, Actor One will have to alternating between the Xbox 360 gamepad and the Big Push controller should he or she choose to utilise it; questions can be answered with the large buzzer, only menus can't exist navigated with information technology, nor can text be entered during the million-dollar question. Curiously, this isn't a problem for whatever of the other three contestants. Are Y'all Smarter Than a 5th Grader? too lets you keep things simple and pass effectually a single control pad amid your group members, just this option deactivates the power to unlock accomplishment points.

Though Are You Smarter Than a fifth Grader? is far from being the best-looking game on the Xbox 360--Jeff Foxworthy and the v classmates all accept jagged edges and incredibly stiff animations--it looks fine considering that it's on Xbox Live Arcade. It probably could have passed as a retail release if the visuals were a little sharper, if the interface were more tightly tied to the Large Push pads when they're plugged in, and if in that location were more than tunes than the grating theme song. Equally a download at 1,200 Microsoft points, Are Yous Smarter Than a 5th Grader? offers a huge array of trivia questions to test your knowledge solo or with friends and family. If you find yourself insulting the encephalon-dead TV contestants who can't differentiate "homonym" from "Human sapiens" then it might be time to step upward to the podium and get your grade schoolhouse on.