TRIVIAL PURSUIT LIVE!

I haven't spent at much time with Trivial Pursuit Live as I typically would have with a game I'm reviewing, but that's for a reason. I attempted to enjoy this game as much as possible, which meant playing it sparingly. The first day I tried it out, I played multiple rounds with my family and realized that playing Trivial Pursuit Live any more than once or twice in a blue moon will shine a much-unwanted spotlight on its many blemishes. However, if you leave the recommended buffer between each session, what you get is a fairly competent game show styled spin-off of the most popular trivia board game in history.
 
Since I received the Hasbro Game Night bundle as a gift around seven years ago, I've probably played Trivial Pursuit Live an average of once per year. In that time, the game was unceremoniously delisted from every storefront but Xbox and replaced by a sequel that I haven't touched. I can think of a few reasons why Ubisoft might have thought a sequel would be worthwhile, but I don't think the original game was anywhere near egregious enough to be removed from sale. For a cheap party game that most people got in a bundle with Risk and Monopoly, it's good enough for a half hour of fun now and then.
 
Reimagining the original board game as a game show, Trivial Pursuit Live presents players with a small selection of trivia-based minigames each play session. There are only a handful to choose from so they will quickly feel repetitive if you play more than once in a row. Thankfully, they offer a nice variety of approaches to competitive trivia. Some will have you answering at the same time as your opponents, allowing everyone the chance to snag some points, while others may force you to pick the next-best answer as you take turns and watch your options disappear one-by-one.
 
As you prove your encyclopedic talents, you'll earn points. As you hit certain point thresholds, you'll earn the staple Trivial Pursuit wedges. Just like the original board game, the goal is to be the first competitor to earn six wedges, meaning you can end the game before every round has been played if you really know your stuff. This can make the final round especially exciting. Even if you are trailing far behind the other competitors, this is your chance to eke out a win with some smart answers.
 
The final round consists of a set of five-question battle royales, one for each of the six categories. If you answer any of the five questions wrong, you're out for that category and need to wait for the next one to try again. If you manage to answer correctly enough times to outlive your opponents, or at least to tie after all five questions, you'll automatically earn a wedge. I don't love when it feels like the majority of a competition is made pointless by a final round, but that's not what happened here. In fact, anytime I encountered an upset victory, even if it wasn't my own, it was somehow still pretty fun. Nobody likes feeling like they're so far gone that there's no point to them playing anymore, so I appreciate that the final round can keep people engaged, even after a rough start.
 
The limited number of minigames and the repetitive narration while you're playing can take away much of the magic of Trivial Pursuit Live if you let it, but there is undeniably something good here. If I had played this game more frequently, I don't think I'd appreciate it as much as I do. Thankfully, I rarely have a group to play this with, so when I do, it is consistently a good time. I can see the developers' ambition in this game, and I think the concept was clever, I just expect they didn't have the time to apply enough polish before they hit their deadline. I hope the sequel resolved most of those issues, but I'm disappointed that Ubisoft made it significantly harder to find the original. If you see a wild copy of Hasbro Game Night for cheap, Trivial Pursuit Live could offer you at least a little fun next time you have to host Thanksgiving.
The game is available for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S here (as of 3/18/25): https://www.xbox.com/en-us/games/store/hasbro-family-fun-pack/c470psn68t66

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