Test the Nation DVD Review:

Based on the pointless Saturday night interactive quiz show, this Test The Nation DVD comes with two different quizzes testing your IQ and your knowledge of Britain, its inhabitants and its history. For those of you fortunate enough to have never seen the TV programme, the tests involve groups of questions grouped around a theme or a particular skill-set. For each question there are a number of
choices and a time limit in which to answer it, you can play either as a group or an individual and the game tells you your score at the end.

Technically the game can be played on a normal DVD player using the remote control to feed in the answers. While ingenious this has two obvious problems. Firstly, the branching of the chapters is not complex enough to allow it to keep track of several scores at one. The result is that when you play as a group you have to jot down your
answers on a piece of paper and add the numbers up manually. Why this should be different, let alone preferable to owning a Test The Nation board game that would also involve scraps of paper is not
clear to me. It's also worth noting that the IQ tests are rather complicated to add up so while playing the game might be fun, adding up the scores definitely isn't. Secondly, as an input device a
remote control is rather imprecise, especially when the answers all have time limits on them. During the play-test it was quite common for people to either fail to get to the right answer in time or to
accidentally enter the wrong answer. As the DVD has no "Do this section again" option this is intensely frustrating.

The questions are something of a mixed bunch. The Great British Test is easily superior to the IQ Test DVD as it has more questions and therefore stands up to repeat play. The Great British Test works
well as a trivia game but given the comparatively dull subject matter you might find yourself drawn to other games with a more entertaining set of questions. The IQ test, on the other hand, is extremely limited and scientifically dubious. Despite studying psychology I have never heard of a theory of intelligence that included memory and while the mathematics questions are extensively explained and hints offered, other series could leave you confused as to what it is you're supposed to be answering. In play-testing, it was found that
the IQs suggested by this DVD varied wildly with IQs given by other means of testing (in two cases by over 30 IQ points). While one could argue "it's just a bit of fun" it would have been just as easy
to put two trivia DVDs together and the notes bray about how the DVD gives you a proper IQ score, so it seems fitting to consider its accuracy as a method of IQ testing. Furthermore, the IQ test
involves maths and logic and is decidedly not fun so if you were going to put yourself through this test you'd want accuracy, as there's no fun to be had.

The DVDs are clearly aimed at the Christmas market and will probably be picked up by people looking for a way to entertain the family on Christmas and Boxing Day. The problem is that these DVDs are actually intensely poorly suited to the Christmas period. Overlooking the problem of expecting you to add everyone's scores up
manually, the subject matter is a little dry for the Christmas period. While a Test The Nation devoted to pop music or film might have proved light-hearted and entertaining, the focus on British
history and the desire to have the whole family compete to see who is the most intelligent seems doomed to spark arguments. The notes even
boast "Who will come out on top will no doubt be the cause of many a debate" and it's easy to see why! In most households Christmas tends
to result in numerous arguments without the opportunity to moan about adding up the totals wrong and one family member being more
intelligent than another. The Test The Nation format also seems singly poorly suited to family gatherings as it operates with time limits meaning that once the game starts you have to pay attention
all the way through until the final scores are added up. Compare this to a board game where you can have a chat or get a cup of tea while it isn't your go and this product simply doesn't compare
favourably, especially when you're going to have to add things up manually anyway.

Playing in single mode makes most of the technical and subject-related problems less obvious but it does seem a mite depressing to sit on your own answering questions about marshlands.
It's the Interactive DVD equivalent of sitting in your pants all day drinking lager and then having a lonely wank when Hollyoaks comes on. It's hardly an aspirational product for us poor singles.

In conclusion, the problems of design and subject matter make this a questionable choice for the Christmas market (especially when it is competing against more populist and light-hearted fare such as an interactive version of QI). The questions are too dry, there aren't enough of them and they seem more likely to generate arguments than fun. When compared to a board game, even one as hackneyed as Cluedo or Monopoly, this DVD doesn't compare favourably. However, the questions are challenging and if you are in the right mood and with the right group of people, you should be able to pass a couple of hours quite pleasantly.



Jonathan McCalmont