Since returning home from JMU, I’ve been quite bored… so I got to laying on the family room couch and flipped on Game Show Network. We’ve had Game Show Network as long as we’ve had digital cable in that room (about a year), and so as usual, you have your classics on there, like Card Sharks, Match Game, Newlywed Game, Hollywood Squares, and so on. However, since I last had a chance to watch, a particular favorite of mine came to the schedule, and that game was Press Your Luck. I remember that show from its USA run in the early 90s, and I was hooked back then, with the object of spinning for cash and prizes while avoiding the dreaded Whammy, who takes all your winnings away, leaving you empty-handed. With watching Press Your Luck, I’ve also come to enjoy the new version of the show, Whammy!, billed as “The All New Press Your Luck“. They’ve redesigned the first round, where instead of a question round and then a time on the big board, you now go straight to the big board alternating between the three players in a line, spinning until they decide to freeze their score for the first round, allowing them to take their winnings into the second round, or until they hit a Whammy, which knocks them out of the first round. I think it’s kind of neat how each time they go through the line, they add more Whammies to the board. The rest of the game is just like the classic, with the addition of the “Double Whammy”. It’s the same as a regular Whammy, where the Whammy animation comes out and you lose all your winnings, but along with all that, you get something spraying you or falling on you, depending on the Whammy animation used. And speaking of Whammy animations, these have been totally redone with computers for the new version, with a skinnier body, bigger teeth, and having fun with a lot of new stuff. A particular favorite of mine is where the Whammy is standing on a pedestal beneath a spotlight, saying, “Who’s one spin short of a winner?” before taking your money, in imitation of Anne Robinson of Weakest Link fame. And just like in the original Press Your Luck, if you accumulate four Whammies, regardless of whether these are regular Whammies or Double Whammies, you are out of the game.
