XBLA Today: Penny Arcade 2 and 5th Graders

Welcome to this weeks slightly awkward edition, as anybody knows, 5th graders and Penny Arcade do not mix, but we’ll have to do the best we can do here, and try to make it all make sense.

Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, for those who don’t know, is based on a tv show, where adult contestents, with a small amount of help from some 5th graders, attempt to answer questions that you would learn the answer to from 1st to 5th grade. The problem is, most of it is useless information for most people later in life, and on the show, they fail miserably. Here, same premise, same host of Jeff Foxworthy, although he looks a little off, with even more of a walrus mustache now. You have a few ways to cheat, as in copying or peeking at one of the 5th graders papers once. It’s simple. One thing I thought was funny was that there is no time limit on the questions, at least that I noticed, so you could probably google every question to get it right. This may be fixed in multiplayer, but the game is very average, and at an above average price of 1,200 points, this is a no, maybe at a lower price, but not now. Especially considering how many times I heard the kids sing the same line… I thought my head was going to explode.

In the second installment of the Penny Arcade Adventures, it seems to be the same thing again, continuing the story from the first, with the same style gameplay, for thankfully, its 400 points less this time. Basically, the same rules apply as the first, if you love Penny Arcade, and RPG’s, this is for you. Otherwise, you should probably think twice. At least check out the demo, because a lot of people liked the first (like me), and I’m happy to see more.