[typing]
This is Quiz Quest,
released in 1997 by Expert Software,
and according to my sources, it's the little-known sequel to Chex Quest,
the prequel to King's Quest,
and the spiritual successor to Titan Quest.
Huh?
Oh, well, I guess my sources are a pile of crap.
This is just a random, standalone trivia game
with one of the most lazily-made boxes I've ever seen.
It's like they stuck a question mark on there as a placeholder image,
but then decided, "Hey, it's a game with questions."
"Why not just leave it?"
Inside the box, you get the game on a compact disc,
as well as a bland paper insert that barely tells you how to start the thing.
Fancy instruction manuals?
Pfft, don't be ridiculous! This is Expert Software!
Quiz Quest begins with a logo that, uh...
Wait, Microforum?
I didn't see their name anywhere on the box.
Whaaat? Mind Grind?
I thought this was Quiz Quest!
I mean, it kind of is, but it's kind of not.
Ugh, so you see,
what you need to understand about Expert Software
is that they often bought the rights to a piece of software
that had outlived its initial shelf life
and then rereleased it under their own label at a cheaper price.
Quiz Quest was originally a game developed by Toronto-based Microforum, Inc.,
and released in 1996 under the name Mind Grind.
Suffice to say, it eventually ended up in Expert's grubby paws,
got a new name slapped on top and an uglier box,
and that was that.
The host in the game constantly refers to it as Mind Grind,
so just ignore that and pretend like nothing happened.
Oh, yeah, and there's a host
because this was the mid-'90s,
and that means copious portions of full-motion video.
HOST: Welcome...
to Dirt.
The site of this millennium's Mind Grind.
The first thing that you should realize is that here
you're nothing special.
LGR: So, for some reason in the year 2232,
Earth is represented by this obnoxious FMV dude
who thinks you're stupid –
"you" being an alien, of course –
and you can choose the species you want to inconsequentially play as at the start.
As an alien, naturally you want to take over the planet,
but in order to do so, you have to answer a crapload of frivolous trivia.
In doing so, you prove to what's his face
that you can possess the something or other –
[stammers] I dunno, it doesn't matter –
and you can then rule the world.
Mm-kay...
Beyond the throwaway plot, this is a collection of five mini-games
with a heap of random trivia sandwiched in between.
Each mini-game plays differently, with things like wandering through mazes,
flying through space,
and climbing over a bunch of pillars.
Each correctly-answered piece of trivia will get you some points,
and obviously you want a lot of those, because that's the point of points.
Sometimes you get screwed by something in the mini-games and lose points,
and there's also a timer which gives you an incentive to answer quickly.
Ideally, you'd play against another human,
because while you can play solo,
there's really not much that compels you to do so.
I say this because, honestly, this game just isn't very fun to me.
For one thing, the host of this is incredibly off-putting,
heckling and belittling you with the same unfunny lines over and over.
Next, the questions themselves are... pretty ridiculous.
A few of them, like the observation and sound effects-based questions, are pretty unique.
But then you've got questions on obscure mythology,
mid-20th Century factoids,
arithmetic,
outdated current affairs,
and Canadian geography stuff that just ruins it for me.
Third, the game doesn't allow you to save your progress
or even open a menu to pause, as fas as I can tell,
which is pretty ridiculous,
considering some of these mini-games took me the better part of 45 minutes to get through.
Now some of this can be fixed,
like the annoying announcer that you can disable at the start,
and saving, which was added in a downloadable patch,
but the overall game just rubs me the wrong way.
I'm not a big fan of anything on offer.
Not the humor, not the graphics,
not the mini-games,
not much except for some of the compelling brain teasers.
If I'm in the mood for a fun, quirky trivia game
that berates me in a way that makes me genuinely laugh at myself,
I play You Don't Know Jack.
And in fact, that game had already been out for over a year
by the time Mind Grind/Quiz Quest was out,
so the same would have been true back then too.
Sorry to say, but this one just doesn't work for me,
and it's no wonder it's faded into total obscurity
while other trivia games still thrive.
HOST: You are absolutely... WRONG!
[electronic music]
LGR: Here's a piece of trivia for you.
Did you like this video?
Well, then you might like some others.
Okay, that's terrible trivia.
But the fact remains I've got a lot of other videos on these kind of things.
So, check my channel for those, as well as just subscribe,
if you want to be notified anytime there's any more.
Two new videos every single week here.
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for other stuff.
As well as Patreon for other other stuff.
Now, if you'll go excuse me, I'm going to go get stuffed on roly-poly myself,
because I'm quite hungry and it's the middle of the day.
And as always, thank you very much for watching.