HomeReviewsFamily Feud Review

Family Feud Review

-

Ubisoft have cornered the market on massive open-world experiences with the likes of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and dancing games courtesy of their Just Dance Series. They’ve even amassed a plethora of board game adaptations over the years such as Uno and Trivial Pursuit LIVE. Now though, they are trying their hand at capturing that family friendly gameshow vibe by adapting the American equivalent of Family Fortunes, Family Feud. Is there fast money to be made from this long-time favourite, or does Family Feud deserve three strikes?

Our survey says… that Family Feud is actually a pretty good party game, which isn’t surprising given that the It’s Quiz Time developers, Snap Finger Click, are the folks behind it. Granted, you won’t be wowed by anything it offers, but clearly a lot of effort has gone into making it possible for the format to work on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One.

family feud xbox

Family Feud is based on the long-running US gameshow of the same name, currently hosted by Steve Harvey, where two families compete against each other to win cash and a car. The premise here isn’t dissimilar, seeing both teams trying to guess the most commonly given answers to questions from a survey of 100 people. Depending how many people said the answer, you’ll be awarded a number of points and the aim is to acquire 300 points across four rounds in order to reach the Fast Money round. For the most part, that’s the rules throughout, whether you’re playing alone, with up to ten players participating, or online.

No matter which mode you’re playing though, the general gameplay during the Face-off rounds consists of giving answers to questions such as to name something ‘…most people can sleep through’, ‘…you’d wear at the beach’, or ‘…everyone knows the word for in Spanish’. You’ll have to type in the guesses and it’ll then begin offering predictions to save some time. Surprisingly, Family Feud often realises what you mean when you enter a British name for the Americanised answers. It also provides leeway by accepting multiple options as the correct term, for example ‘Funeral’ and ‘Wedding’ were accepted for ‘Church’ in one instance. Conversely, you can rack up incorrect answers by not realising that certain terms are under the same umbrella.

The grand finale, Fast Money, is the most exciting round due to having the clock running down, putting you under pressure to respond swiftly. Should you manage to obtain all of the top answers, you win a car (in-game) and a nice wedge of cash to spend on customisations, but I’ll come back to those later. On the whole, the library of over 1500 questions means you should get plenty of sessions out of Family Feud before repetition arises. The only slight critique on the questions available is that around 1 in 4 are a bit niche; some rounds pass by with barely an answer or two on the board.

Despite featuring a super cheesy host in the form of Lucky McCoy – who you will instantly dislike – the presentation and format comes together to create the necessary atmosphere to feel like you’re on the show. From the intro to the amount of time allotted for answering the questions at hand, it’s really well designed. The only drawback is how out of date and robotic the character models are, which doesn’t gel with the snazzy studio setting.

Nevertheless. there are four different game modes to delve into: Classic, Party Battle, Couch vs. Couch, and Live Show. Classic is the standard offering for up to five players to team-up against AI families locally, with difficulty settings determining which family you face. Meanwhile, Party Battle allows two teams to battle it out offline, thus up to 10 people could be partaking in the show. Enabling so many to get involved ensures nobody should be left out during the next gathering you organise. The best aspect though, is that you’ll still only need one controller because Family Feud encourages passing it around. There’s nothing worse than scrambling to find more controllers for party games, so it’s a relief that Snap Finger Click have taken away such worries.

While beating the Lee family – the easiest of the limited AI selection – is an accomplishment in itself, there will come a point where you’re wishing for more families to conquer. In theory, Couch vs. Couch has you covered by letting you loose against online opposition, which runs pretty smoothly to be fair. The issue is there seemingly aren’t many playing because matchmaking takes an age and, after numerous sessions, I’ve only matched up with two ‘families’ – comprised of one character and two characters, respectively. Given the current goings on in the world however, one hopes it’ll pick up in the future.

The final mode, Live Show, is catering to the streamers out there as it lets you integrate your YouTube or Twitch account for an interactive experience. Essentially, those watching will be trying to guess your answers and their successful guesses will correlate with the amount of points you earn. As someone with no traction in the realm of streaming, Live Show is of little use, however people with a decent following will welcome it for sure. 

It’s worth mentioning you can customise the names and appearances, so every member of your family and your buddies can look the part on the show. There are a fair amount of options, until it comes to attires and accessories, which must be purchased using in-game cash. It’s great to have things to work towards, but the worthwhile and funny wearable items are in short supply. Aside from a funky jacket or two, a santa hat, a unicorn horn, and a crown, there’s not much else that catches the eye.

All in all, Family Feud on Xbox brings that Saturday evening gameshow vibe straight to your home. A huge library of questions, combined with a relatively fair price at launch, means there’s good value in this party game. The different modes cater for almost every situation, even for the cold winter nights on your own, and the fact it can enable 10 players to play using a single controller is music to the ears. It’s only really held back by the bizarre questions that pop up a little too frequently, a lack of imaginative items to buy, and dated looking models. Oh, and the strange way it lumps different words together and decides it’s the same thing.

If you enjoy either Family Fortunes or Family Feud, then the Family Feud game is a relatively low risk purchase for you as it captures the format very well and will allow you to experience the fun of the show without leaving the house. 

James Birks
James Birks
Been gaming casually since the SNES as a youngster but found my true passion for games on the Playstation 1 (the forbidden word ooo). My addiction grew to its pinnacle with the purchase of an Xbox 360 & Xbox Live Service. A recovering GS hunter that will still play literally any game.

1 COMMENT

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

1 Comment
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
steve Malu
2 years ago

How can I get on the family feud show?

Follow Us On Socials

24,000FansLike
1,671FollowersFollow
4,922FollowersFollow
6,570SubscribersSubscribe

Our current writing team

2798 POSTS23 COMMENTS
1506 POSTS2 COMMENTS
1261 POSTS18 COMMENTS
995 POSTS46 COMMENTS
856 POSTS0 COMMENTS
389 POSTS2 COMMENTS
116 POSTS0 COMMENTS
81 POSTS0 COMMENTS
78 POSTS4 COMMENTS
24 POSTS0 COMMENTS
12 POSTS10 COMMENTS
8 POSTS0 COMMENTS

Join the chat

You might also likeRELATED
Recommended to you

1
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x