Planet quiz LadiesGamers

Planet Quiz: Learn & Discover Review

Game: Planet Quiz: Learn & Discover
Genre: Education, Multiplayer, Party, Puzzle
System: Nintendo Switch
Developer|Publisher: Naptime Games
Age Rating: US E | EU 3
Price: US $11.99 | UK £10.79 | EU € 11,99 
Release Date: December 25th, 2021 

Review code used with many thanks to Naptime Games.

If you’re an older millennial like me, you probably spent at least some time watching the legendary kids geography show Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?. Or playing the computer game. You were DEFINITELY singing the song! My point is, you probably wanted to be better at geography so you would do well playing along with this title. If you were like me, you never got very good at geography after all. So how does Planet Quiz: Learn & Discover do at solving this missed learning opportunity? Let’s find out!

Gameplay

Planet Quiz. Ladiesgamers.com.
A picture of Earth from outer space, and some factoids about Baikal Lake.

There are three modes of gameplay: Campaign, quickplay, and tournament (multiplayer). The campaign takes you through three levels of content for each of eight areas on planet Earth, including Earth in its entirety. The levels increase in difficulty. Thankfully, it autosave saves where you leave off so that you can take a break if your brain gets tired. 

Planet Quiz. Ladiesgamers.com.
Shows a gameplay screenshot where you have to put historical figures in order of birth.

Quickplay lets you set up short, single-player quizzes. You can choose how many rounds and how long you have to answer each question. The tournament lets you play with up to 4 people, but I wasn’t able to test this feature on my Switch Lite since it required connecting extra controllers.

You play by matching people, places, and features with various locations on the planet. Some questions involve activities such as putting people in order of birth, or animals in order of speed. Each full three-level section has been taking me about an hour to complete, meaning campaign mode takes about 8 hours.

Content

Planet Quiz. Ladiesgamers.com.
The levels of the Earth section.

In addition to the actual gameplay, there’s a Quizpedia section where you can look at all the factoids presented on the places, people, and features discussed in the game. It’s basically an in-game Wiki. Personally, I find these factoids more fun to read during the gameplay, as they are presented after each question is answered. However, I was disappointed to find that not every item featured has an accompanying article. 

Music & Graphics

Planet Quiz. Ladiesgamers.com.
A screenshot of part of the Quickplay.

I found the music to be highly repetitive and quickly turned it off.  The graphics are fine for this type of game, though the text is a bit small on the lite. Because of the multiplayer feature, I suspect this game is mostly designed to be played on a TV. I appreciated that the player image selection in the Quickplay is very diverse. Representation in gaming matters, even in the little things!

Issues

Planet Quiz. Ladeisgamers.com
. A screencap that shows how part of the game is cut off at the bottom.

The game needs a little more proofreading. Portugal was called Portuguese in one question. There are also some screens where content isn’t scaled correctly (such as in the screencap above). It ends up cutting off a portion of a space where you enter an answer. So far I haven’t encountered anything game-breaking in this regard, just annoying.

I definitely would have appreciated a little more organization in how the information is presented. It feels very random, and I’m not sure how much I’m actually learning. However, it does imitate a quiz show very well by being this random, so that adds to the fun.

Planet Quiz. Ladiesgamers.com. T
The end result of one of my Quickplay sessions.

Conclusion

This is an odd conclusion to write. Because of the relatively small amount of content, minor production issues, and slightly high price point (in my opinion anyway), I can’t say that I recommend this game for most players (without a price drop. As of this writing, it is on sale at a slight discount). However, our rating system is based on whether I like the game, and that is a definite yes! In fact, I’m enjoying this so much that I plan to buy the expansion of the oceans. So if you’re a very specific type of gamer for whom Carmen Sandiego, the National Spelling Bee, and Brain Quest are remembered with fondness, or you still love them now, this game is probably for you even with its faults and price point. I just wouldn’t recommend it if you find geography easy or boring. 

Final Verdict: I Like It 

I like it

 

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