Let’s go back to the foggy days or yore. You know, 2007. Jeff Foxworthy hosted a game show called ‘Are You Smarter Than a 5’e Grader’ and people found that they rightly couldn’t remember anything they learned (or didn’t learn) in elementary school. The show ran for seven seasons on various networks until it finally ended in 2019, hosted by John Cena on Nickelodeon. As you may have guessed, ‘Are you smarter than a 5’e Grader?’ is back in video game form from Handy Games and publisher THQ Nordic. The game takes the format of the TV show and converts it into a replayable trivia video game just like a shorter version of Jeopardy with thousands of questions. Instead of live guests, these are computer generated guests, but the game offers full voice work for all participants.
If you’re not familiar with ‘Are You Smarter Than a 5’e Grader?’, it’s a show where you answer trivia questions that start with 1st Score and work your way to the last question, a 6e first grade. Along the way, real elementary school students would help the participants answer the questions and were given several opportunities to cheat or ask for help. The game follows exactly the same format, although the students are, of course, made up. You can copy a student’s work, ask the class, or ask a new question. The mechanics change slightly for the multiplayer mode, but it’s essentially the same there.
To start, choose a persona that you will be for the duration of the game. These are titles rather than real names, which is more than a little weird. Being called “Oldest Sibling” an entire game is definitely off-putting in single-player mode. Once you’ve chosen your persona and agency, you’ll move on to first class. There are two hosts and both are intensely fizzy and pleasant, almost saccharine. They talk extensively about the game, the students who will help you, the rules and more. They switch places every few questions and luckily the developers have thought of including a skip button for dialogue. You need it.
A student is also available during each question, so if you need to cheat by asking for help, you can. Most of the early questions are pretty simple so if you’re an adult you probably won’t use these until later, but they’re there, they literally talk to you and encourage you. If you answer a question correctly, you advance to the next round. In between rounds, the hosts chat with the school children. Yes really. The hosts actually ask about what they like and facts they know and the kids respond. Painful.
While it’s important to maintain the game show feel, this is honestly a bit much. You can also skip it, but this should have a checkbox in the options menu. The dialogue is tedious and atrocious with digital kids telling digital hosts about themselves in some sort of weird game show parody. It just feels out of place to have so much chatter in your game that serves no purpose, even if it adds flavor to an otherwise short trivia game.
In the end you pass or win at ‘Are You Smarter Than a 5’e Grader’. Either way, you get some points that slowly unlock more students, desks, names, and other items for you to use in the game. That’s pretty much all there is here. An endless loop of 6800 trivia questions that unlocks the game bit by bit. You’ll earn a few unlocks at the start, but the last ones are hundreds of thousands of points and honestly, who’s going to do that?
Multiplayer in the game is essentially the same, but you compete locally with up to 8 players. It’s a bit more fun and a bit less annoying overall, but not hugely entertaining. The simple fact is that the overall gameplay of the game is so bland that even playing with others doesn’t make it any better. The questions are strange and sometimes too difficult, the focus on American perspectives is weird (the game literally asks you if you want American points of view), and the constant set and host changes feel like they take forever. There’s no need for it. No need for two hosts. There’s no need to let fake kids continue. It’s a pastime of the worst kind, especially if you just want to play a trivia game.
Visually, ‘Are you smarter than a 5’e Grader’ isn’t more attractive. The characters are strange, feverish people whose weird positivity gives them an almost cult-like fervor. The kids are cherubic, talkative and obnoxious, and while you can change their costumes, who cares? The sets that pop out move fine, but they add to both time and loading time and the game just isn’t that exciting to begin with. Game show music is definitely not something to talk about either, and the incessant clapping (yes, yes, it’s a game show) is remarkably annoying.
To put it bluntly: ‘Are you smarter than a 5’e Grader?’ Is not fun. It’s poorly presented, icy paced, and just not that enjoyable. It’s no surprise that the game show has been canned three times after fairly short runs and the video game version is even worse. It’s like all the fun has leaked out of this title and it’s devoid of any redeeming qualities. Sure, some questions are good, but not all. For example, who knows that the Dewey Decimal System has classifications for fiction? Ever seen fiction stored underneath in a library? I didn’t think so. Or here’s a map of all 50 states, where did Ruby Bridges go to school? Choose a state (no names, just outlines).
And what’s the point of all unlockables? Does anyone care what clothes the kids wear? Or what their desk looks like? Sure, it’s fun to unlock new categories, but that’s about it. It just doesn’t make sense and unlocking new weird titles for the hosts to call you certainly isn’t appealing. It’s fair to admit that it’s arguably funny to be called “Nasty Unit” for the entire game.
‘Are you smarter than a 5’e Grader?’ just fails to engage players at every opportunity and after a few playthroughs you basically skip the whole game and start to get annoyed. At $30, this is not a game that will interest many players and even those will probably skip the $10 DLC, which adds more questions. With 6800 questions and 11 questions per game (if you don’t lose), you’re looking at a minimum of 600+ games to even get through all the questions and really no one will play that often. ‘Are you smarter than a 5’e Grader?’ is a title you’ll probably skip if you’re smarter.
This review is based on a digital copy of ‘Are You Smarter Than a 5’e Grader’ provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes and played equally well in both. ‘Are you smarter than a 5’e Grader’ is also available on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC on Steam.
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