The Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit DVD Edition
By Tate Blackmore
The battle of the epic franchises rages on with the Lord of the Rings Trilogy Trivial Pursuit DVD Edition. Only a few short years after the Star Wars Trilogy Edition, Parker Brothers' Lord of the Rings Trilogy Edition transports trivia hounds sick of trying to remember the name of the yak-looking guy on Jabba's sail barge and which atomic physicist was used as the model for Yoda's eyes to the realm of Middle Earth. If you're a LOTR fan, this is an excellent collectible and an highly enjoyable game, without or without "pints."
The breakdown
The game can be played for 2-4 players. Just like the traditional Trivial Pursuit game, players move around the circular track collecting different colored wedges. The first player to fill the spokes of his or her hexagonal player piece wins the game. Included in the game are four highly detailed game pieces: Frodo, Aragorn, Gandalf, and Galadriel. While not pewter pieces like the tokens from the Star Wars edition, the pieces are exceptionally sculpted and painstakingly detailed down to Frodo’s furry feet and the wrinkles on Gandalf's face.
The Questions
The questions are divided into six basic categories: Good Characters, Evil Characters, Places & History, Things, Warfare, and Making Movies. While there are questions even the most casual viewer could answer without breaking a sweat, some questions may leave you wishing you had an aging Tolkien scholar in a corduroy blazer sitting on the couch next to you. Of course, anyone who frequently watches the bonus features on the extended DVD editions of the films will have no problem figuring out "What West Virginia-born actor spoke in character the entire time on set, leading Bernard Hill to think that his actual accent was faked?". Overall, there are more than 2,400 questions, ranging from the simple: "What great forest borders the land of Rohan?" to the mind-numbingly impossible: "How many hours did it take to glue the Uruk-hai leader Lurtz into his prosthetic suit?" The questions are engaging and could foster some spirited rounds; however, it would have been nice to see a category, or at least a few questions, dedicated to the books or Tolkien himself (the author is barely mentioned).
The DVDs
When players attempt to score a wedge, they must answer a question from the interactive DVDs instead of drawing a card. The 2 DVDs feature twenty different games, named after different places in Middle Earth. Narrated by Gollum (yes, actually Andy Serkis)—who says that you are smart if you guess the right answer and dumb if you answer incorrectly—the discs are filled with film clips, still photographs, and music from the films. Some questions require players to watch a short scene and then quickly answer a question, while others require players to identify still photos of characters and places. The DVDs are high quality and add a unique dimension to this endlessly playable game.
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