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What It Is
How many long car rides have been made more fun with guessing
games like "I Spy" and "20 Questions"?
(Obviously we're talking about a time before every car
had a video player.) These games are fun, interactive and
simple, but they always require at least two people—one
person (the guesser) guessing what another person (the thinker)
is thinking.
Now, the classic two-person game of 20 Questions is an intriguing
solitaire game, but you won't want to play it alone for
long because once you see how it works, you're going
to want everyone you know to try it.
Here's how it works: First you think of something like
an object. Then with that firmly in mind, pick up tennis ball-sized
orb that has a see-through plastic shell and LCD screen and
press the "New Game" button. The unit starts asking
questions and you answer them by pushing buttons that say
"yes," "no," "sometimes" or
"unknown," then 20Q will take a guess at what you
are thinking.
Why It's Fun
This simple game is fun on many levels but there are two main
reasons why we enjoy it. First is the anticipation of whether
or not 20Q will guess what you've thought of. As it asks
such random questions, as "Is it heavier than a pound
of butter?" or "Is it bigger than a duck?"
you can't wait to see what its guess will be.
The second aspect of 20Q that makes it fun is hoping it won't
guess your item and that you have stumped it. Trust us, its
very satisfying to see that smug little device admit you beat
it. But that doesn't happen very often. The vast majority
of the times you try to beat it, it will guess exactly what
you were thinking (even obscure things like the vegetable
jicama), and that's when we consistently heard comments
like, "That's freaky!" and "How did it
do that?"
Although 20Q is just a little computer that can only communicate
through words on a screen and beeps, it still has a lot of
personality. Occasionally between questions it will tease
you and boast how easy it is to read your mind.
We're not sure how it works, but it involves a lot of
higher math like logarithms and algorithms and things we wished
we'd paid more attention to back in school, but we recommend
forgetting the math and just having fun.
Who's Going To Love It
We haven't seen a single person who picked this up who
could easily put it down—and people of all ages. There's
this kind of manic thing that happens when people want to
try to come up with things to try to stump it.
It's kind of fun to see a grown-up arguing back with
a piece of plastic about the size of a yo-yo.
No wonder this is one of the hottest toys of the year and
generating a lot of buzz.
Most people agree, after playing, that 20Q's ability
to guess correctly is uncanny.
What To Be Aware Of
Our tests have resulted in very few missed guesses for 20Q
and usually the only time it was unable to guess what we were
thinking was when we were thinking of something vague, like
New York City. When we tried it again thinking of "a
building," it guessed correctly.
We also tried to come up with naughty things, only to get
scolded by the toy and having it refuse to play. That, in
and of itself, is enough to get you thinking.
20Q has three sound settings, "Off," "Low"
and "High" and comes in a variety of color tinted
see-through designs.
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