Planet Quiz: Learn & Discover review for Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One

Platform: Nintendo Switch
Also on: PS4, Xbox One
Publisher: Naptime Games
Developer: Naptime Games
Medium: Digital
Players: 1-4
Online: No
ESRB: E

I?m a huge fan of trivia games. I got sucked into the Jackbox series by the inclusion of You Don?t Know Jack, and Trivia Murder Party is possibly my favourite of all the games. I?ve been playing Sporcle on a near-daily basis for almost a decade. Basically, if it?s built around knowledge of random facts and it?s gamified, I?m all in on it.

In other words, I?m kind of the target audience for a game like Planet Quiz: Learn & Discover.

Except, I?m not, maybe? The thing is, it?s hard to tell who the game is meant for. With its cartoony visuals and nods towards learning, it would seem like Planet Quiz is meant for kids. That said, the way the game actually works, it?s hard to imagine anyone but the most devoted of trivia buffs getting that attached to it. It?s basically just round after round of question and answer, with not much variety in any of the game modes.

To be fair, I?ve seen worse trivia games. Planet Quiz is a lot more engaging than, say, Knowledge Trainer: Trivia or Save Farty. Whereas those games were barebones in their presentation, here they occasionally mix up how you get to respond ? much of the time it?s placing images on a globe, but Planet Quiz does throw the occasional curveball by asking you to place items in order.But that doesn?t make the game that much fun for any extended length of time. The tournament is fun-ish in short doses, but if you want to try your hand at the campaign mode, you?re signing up for lengthy slogs where you have to slowly unlock harder difficulty levels ? and until you do, you?re looking at dozens of rounds of very easy trivia questions. Even if you like trivia (and again, I really do), the lack of challenge combined with the length of the easy chapters can get dull really fast.

In order words, a game like Trivia Murder Party does?t have all that much to worry about. Planet Quiz has a fine base on which to build for next time, but they need to find a way of making their game more fun to play outside of short bursts.

Naptime Games provided us with a Planet Quiz: Learn & Discover Switch code for review purposes.

Grade: C+