WHO'S THE WEAKEST WINK? (The Weakest Link)

Member Name: harmonyk

Product:	The Weakest Link
Date:	04/12/01 (198 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun for small or large groups of friends, You can be sarcastic without getting a slap!

Disadvantages: 'Anne' has to be pretty fast and flexible., You might lose a friend by voting them off.

I have been ordered to write another opinion by a Cornishman who frequents this website. I have wracked my brains trying to decide which of my many ideas should be placed in the archives of Dooyoo for all eternity and have decided to bestow that honour upon THE WEAKEST LINK board game.

In a desperate effort to keep the Dooyoo police happy and to gain my first crown I am trying very hard to avoid naming any of my Dooyoo friends in this opinion. Whether this will improve my chances, or whether it will mean my losing those friends, will remain to be seen - still they know who the are - PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME - I'M SAVING UP FOR A DIVORCE!

Ok so enough of this babbling - to the game...

THE WEAKEST LINK to any of you who have spent the last year on Mars, is a tv show currently being shown on BBC1 (weekly) and BBC2 (Mon-Fri). Hosted by ex journalist and Watchdog presenter Anne Robinson the show has attracted a huge audience and the format has been sold around the world. In America Anne has made her fortune by presenting the show there herself. In Australia the show follows exactly the same format but with an Ozzie actress who has been 'made over' to look just like Anne.

So - like many other tv games, a board game had to follow. We purchased THE WEAKEST LINK back in October for my daughter's birthday.

Most department stores and many supermarkets will stock the game for Christmas at a cost of around £19.99.

The game can be played by 9 to 12 players from the age of 12 years old.

The object of the game is for the players to accumulate as many points as possible and throughout the game the weakest link will be voted out between rounds. Only the strongest will survive.

The game consists of several pieces that need to be popped out of their card sheets before commencing. There is a voting wheel, a bank indicator, a statistics section and shield, 200 question cards, 3 marker cards,
20 bank/head to head tokens, a bank/head to head meter 8 voting wheels and 8 movers, 1 timer and most importantly – an Anne Robinson mask!

PLAYING THE GAME.

Someone is chosen to be Anne (the question master) - She has the job of setting the timer, asking the questions, recording statistics, managing the bank, tallying the scores and conducting the voting. She also takes great pleasure in humiliating players with insulting comments.

The basics of the rules are simple (if you are interested enough to buy the game you can read the instructions in more detail).

There is an allotted time for each round and players are asked questions. If they say ‘BANK’ before their question is asked, the points accumulated will be safely banked, if they answer a question incorrectly, any points not banked will be lost and the next contestant will restart the round – but the minutes will still be ticking away. At the end of the round the points will be totalled and the team will vote off the weakest link.

This goes on for several rounds – one person being voted off at each round and the length of each round is reduced in time.

When the game is down to 2 contestants it changes to the HEAD TO HEAD round.

In This round the final 2 players have to answer 5 questions – the one who answers most correct wins the game. If they tie – then there are tiebreaker questions.

So that’s it – I have played the game and whilst I found it amusing and fairly close to the TV show, it is also very difficult for the person being ‘Anne Robinson’ because they must set the timer, ask the question to the right person, log their number of points and work out who is strongest or weakest between each round.. All that makes me realise why she comes across as such a nasty spiteful character on the program! And she really ought to sort out that nervous wink!

I am happy
to admit – I am the weakest link – goodbye!

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