Austin Powers Operation: Trivia Review

Do I make you horny? Do I, baby? Yeah!

Dr. Evil is once again up to . . . well, evil. He's kidnapped our shagadelic friend and International Man of Mystery, Austin Powers, and is holding him hostage in the Electric Psychedelic Pussycat Swingers Club. How Dr. Evil ever got past the bouncer, we'll never know. Anyway, instead of killing Austin and destroying the world, Dr. Evil has concocted a diabolical plan. As is the case with most evil geniuses, his plan is overly elaborate and probably won't work in the end.

He has created a game show where the person who knows the most trivia wins. For Austin, this means not only his freedom, but also the salvation of the Earth (and all the shagalicious babes on it). For Dr. Evil, winning means not only the destruction of his arch-enemy Austin Powers, but also the annihilation of the Earth, which he'll watch from space aboard his Bob's Big Boy rocket with his cat, Mr. Bigglesworth. Either way, the winner ends up with a pussy . . .

Oh, behave!

At its core, Austin Powers Operation: Trivia is You Don't Know Jack with an Austin Powers theme. Featuring some shagarific 60's graphics and some downright naughty sound, Austin Powers Operation: Trivia should make even the squarest of the square crack a smile.

Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to side with either Austin Powers or Dr. Evil and decide the fate of the World. Mwahahahahahahahaha! Oh, sorry . . . While the game looks good, the questions (the core of any trivia game) are unfortunately a mixed bag of good and bad, significantly decreasing the overall enjoyment of the game.

The graphics are hands down (but keep 'em where I can see 'em . . . cheeky monkey) the best part of the game. From the psychedelic backgrounds to the Laugh-In inspired animations in between the questions, you can tell that the designers are truly a bunch of swingers. They even throw in snippets of Dr. Evil doing the Macarena and Austin turning on his animal charm. Grrr, baby!

The sound is also fantastic. With background music you can shag to, Austin Powers Operation: Trivia makes you want pull out your beanbag chair and plug in the lava lamp (now if only I had a circular rotating bed . . .). The voices are excellent, although not done by the actors in the movies. While some of the sound clips are from Mike Myers, the majority of the voices (including the host, Dr. Evil, and Austin Powers) are portrayed by Colin Mahan. Don't worry, this Austin clone was hand picked by Mike Myers and is not one-eighth his size. In fact, it took a while to realize that it wasn't Mike Myers himself. Colin Mahan (besides being given the best first name in the known universe) does an excellent Dr. Evil. I wonder if he had to shave his scrotum to do the part . . .

Any trivia game is only as good as the questions it asks. This holds true for Austin Powers Operation: Trivia. There are four types of questions in the game. "Need the Info!" questions are your basic fill-in-the-blank questions. "Stop 'n' Go Go!" questions give you seven answers of which you pick up to four. The more you get right, the more money you get. But, if you get one wrong, you don't even get a kiss goodnight. There are also "Keep Away" questions where you have to keep the answers that fit your category and throw away answers that belong to your opponent's category. Finally, the final question takes the form of the "Crazy Chain," in which you have nine multiple-choice questions in rapid-fire order. Does me describing this make you horny? Control yourself till the end of the review, you minx!

While there are over 500 different questions, and only seven questions per game, some of the questions will downright annoy most gamers. In the attempt to promote the two Austin movies yet again (apparently it wasn't enough to have an Austin themed game), a number of the trivia questions are Austin movie-specific. With shameless self-promotion such as "What four outfits does Austin Powers wear in International Man of Mystery?", you don't play trivia so much as prove how much of an Austin Powers fan you are. Bummer.

In the end (oh, behave!), Austin Powers Operation: Trivia is a mixed bag. While at some points it's more fun than a pair of cheerleader twins, other times it just feels like you're watching a commercial for the Austin Powers movies. If you're in the market for a trivia game, you're better off with You Don't Know Jack. But, if you're a big Austin Powers fan, than this game is perfect for you. Now, I'm off to fight crime . . . care for a ride in my Shaguar?