Anyone who has spent time in a bar, or even watched a few minutes of ESPN, can relate to the competition and fun of sports trivia. Whether you follow sports or not, you find yourself flipping through your mental Rolodex when a question is presented. It's habit, and brings out your competitive nature. So, what's better than to be able to sit in your own home and have the power of the bars' best trivia games at your fingertips? No tipping, either!

Ubi Soft has created a fun and challenging at-home game in it's Power Play Sports Trivia venture for the PSX. There are a couple different modes to play in, and you can play from one to four (with PSX Multitap) players. Playing alone is fun, but the thrill is going head to head with opponents as would happen in a "real world" setting.

You can play either Tournament or Last Man Standing. Tournament is a progressive point game in which you gain points and status the farther you go answering 10 questions increasing in difficulty. Last Man Standing was my favorite, as it plays you against opponents as you are asked questions-- trying to NOT answer wrong and be knocked out. You can select 5, 3 or 1 incorrect answers for that game of elimination. Only the biggest of sports geeks would dare the 1 point version. I had enough trouble with the five point version.

You can select what sports you will be challenged with: Football, Baseball, Hockey and Basketball. Both college and Pro knowledge is required. You may also elect to make it randomly select questions from ALL four categories. That levels the playing field (so to speak) if you are playing someone that is particularly good at a certain sport. You may know football, but maybe hockey is a weaker subject. If you know all four, you have it made.

Points are scored with correct answers, while incorrect responses will deduct funds from your account. High scores are based on dollar amounts. This can be tricky when you play against someone that has a bad game. If they go out too quickly (like missing 5 in a row!!), you may not get the chance to accumulate much money. In any case, it is fun to play head to head, and taunt your opponent as you go. I sure learned my weaknesses very fast. Guess I better pay more attention to Hockey next season!! 

Gameplay: 8
Fun and challenging. In the many hours of gameplay, I do not recall being asked the same question twice. Good for a platform trivia game!!

Graphics: 7.5 
Considering this is, at it's core, just a database program with a score-keeping program, I would have liked to see some more interesting graphics. But, this IS a text trivia game and not a action game, so it was not too bad.  

Sound: 7
This was my biggest problem with the game. The music repeated the same dull, boring macho-march music each time a question was asked. The music started at the same point, and played the same (up to) ten seconds of music each time. That really got old-- fast. There were not many event sounds, otherwise. 

Difficulty: Medium
Easy to understand and execute, but the questions got quite hard and challenging. Small learning curve which enabled quick gameplay. Even if you are a extreme sports buff, you will still have fun. 

Concept: 7 
Since this is really just a platform version of a National bar-style game, there isn't much original about it. It follows the real life version(s) very closely, but bringing it to your home is a benefit. 

Multiplayer: 
With the Multitap, you can play up to four players at once, which is a lot of fun and the taunting really begins!!

Overall: 8
Besides some of the negatives listed above, this was a fun and very challenging game that conjures up a party as soon as it is installed. There are over 4,000 questions, so the repeat-factor is minimal-- especially if playing multi-sport games. I heartily recommend it for your PSX library. It is a crowd pleaser, or a good solo challenge for the sports-lover.