Test your Pokémon knowledge against your friends with a new take on the trivia challenge that kids are sure to enjoy, for our latest Geek Pick of the Week.
As the Holiday season approaches, we’re bringing back our Geek Pick of the Week. Each week leading up to Christmas, we’ll be highlighting a cool product we’ve found that we feel would be the perfect gift for geeks of all kinds. Use these to help fill in your own wish list or find the perfect gift for the nerds in your life. Click HERE to read more about previous Picks of the Week!
This week, Ultra Pro was kind enough to shoot me their newest Pokemon board game, Pokémon Trainer Trivia. While it definitely skews for the younger crowd, it’s certainly something I can see a whole lot of parents adding to their shopping lists this year.
The concept is relatively simple and plays out like just about any other trivia game, but it has some neat twists that make it feel unique to the Pokémon universe. For one, you get a four-corner game “board” that’s completely electronic. Fire it up and you’re able to choose one of four “Pokémon” which essentially act as your player avatar. Don’t worry, you can play it with as little as 2 people instead of a full four, but it’s definitely more interesting when you up the player count.
From there, you can select three different skill levels, depending on the challenge you want and dive into the action. All of the trivia comes across as True/False questions which are posed to all the players at once. So instead of taking turns, players have to be the first to tap in (think Jeopardy or just about any other competitive trivia game) for a chance to answer. Tapping on either the white or red part of the Pokéball in the center is how you answer.
This is where the cool part comes in. Every character/Pokémon on the game board are given a set of “life points” to start. Answering questions correctly deducts points from everyone else, but you’ll lose points for getting it wrong. At the end of the game, the player with the most points wins. This format makes it feel like you’re still having a Pokémon battle, upping the “stakes” and adding a solid twist on what could have been a fairly typical trivia game.
Again, this is definitely something younger audiences will enjoy more, but even for parents who end up watching the anime series (or play the other games with their kids) the easy mode allows you to still have fun with your kiddo. I know more about Pokémon than the average parent, but I was surprised at how deep some of the questions get. Still, it was fun to sit and do this with the kids and if you have some younger people to shop for this year who love Pokemon, this is an excellent choice.
For only $25, there’s hours of great fun to be had. Pokémon Trainer Trivia is available now in stores and online retailers.
[Note: Post includes affiliate links.]
