"Wheel of Fortune Junior Edition" (NES)

Popular TV game show ported to the NES, catering to younger gamers. Easy to play and navigate, despite the puzzles being tough to solve at times.

The "Junior Edition" of Wheel of Fortune....and here all along I thought parents/guardians perceived video games as a "kid" thing, despite the fact that gamers are usually around the age of 30. Nevertheless, I imagined what the thought(s) of the employee at a video game store had when someone walked in, picked this game off the shelves and placed it on the counter for purchasing back in 1988. Not that I, myself, would laugh or mock the customer but thoughts blossom when you or someone, out of all the other popular titles out there for the NES, chose to pick this up.



Two things: the description on the back is missing a punctuation (a period), and the credits screen shown the moment you boot the game up misspelled the word "pictures," and was written "picures." Luckily, none of the puzzles I needed to guess and solve were misspelled but I got the funny feeling that this game was hurried. Having been released nearly a year later, following the first version of Wheel of Fortune on NES, these minor mistakes could have easily been fixed. Other than that, the game plays like normal.

What's so "junior" about it is relatively the puzzles used to solve on this game. Sometimes a simple phrase, thing, place and/or person can trip someone like me come solving time. Then again, getting a 7-year-old kid to guess "Third Base Umpire" or "Toasted Marshallow" proves this may not be too forgiving for kids. Surely, it depends on the difficultly level. What I found odd was that Level 1 in difficulty is actually the toughest, and level 3 is the easiest (usually level 3 is the hardest). If programmers didn't see this during QC, despite the misspellings which is already a sign, I couldn't see a youngster not rip a pinch of hair off their head wondering why the easiest level is the one s/he can never win in.

Graphically, it's relatively the same as the first version with a few templates sporting a new color, such as the stairs and floor that the hostess—Vanna White—walks on; The wheel is also the same with a background color change. The music hasn't changed and still reminds me of tracks that best fit in an RPG game.

The biggest change would be the Bonus Round. Check out these prizes you can choose to play for:

Stereo Equipment (Stereo System)
Ten Speed Bikes (BMX)
TV and VCR (VCR Gear)
A Vacation (A Trip To Disney World)
A Shopping Spree ($1000 Toy Token)
Trip To Washington



Hard to believe a youngster would not want to play for a trip to Disney World.

For the final round, the puzzles used to get the player to guess is relatively unfair especially for a youngster. Unless that kid has read enough books, more than the average kid, I can't see any young one being able to solve in their first several tries (assuming they won and defeated the computer). Actually, you know, I like to see kids today try to play this and try to win the Bonus Round. Let's face it: kids today barely read books and brag to friends about their app collection. Tch.

Although it is an okay edition, it's not as impressive nor would it be simple for the kids. That little discrepancy on choosing the difficulty level will surely trip up the young gamer.

Kris Caballero

Founder and operator of KCU Network, Kris has been writing since he managed a personal blog created back in late 2005. Despite publishing articles and reviews from time to time for the network's website, Kris enjoys studying the sciences, namely Math, playing old video/DOS games, reading non-fiction books and listening to sports radio.

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