The graphics in Jeopardy!: 2nd Edition are a step back from the previous game's efforts. Everything seems to float in some kind of void, with no sense of being in a quiz show studio. The only hints that you may be playing in a studio are the backdrops that Alex is placed in front of. The FMV is decent, has the real guy, and is short enough to be non-bothersome. But the game certainly doesn't impress when it comes to graphics.

Sound, on the other hand, is quite solid. The voice acting, for what it's worth, is quite good, with clear enunciation and the occasional phrase by Alex. And the classic Jeopardy! theme is here in all its glory, not to mention the goofy little bleeping whenever the dollar amounts appear on the board. It's nothing special, really, but neither does it detract from the gameplay experience.

Unfortunately, the game itself will irritate you more than anything else. With the pickiest parser I've ever seen, Jeopardy!: 2nd Edition takes all the fun out of one of my favourite gameshows. The little frills that are added on don't keep this game from gameplay hell.

For those of you who don't know just what Jeopardy! is, it's a classic quiz game show where the clues are in the form of answers, not questions. You have to answer in questions instead. It's hard to say, but in theory it's plenty simple enough.

After picking how many humans are playing, and computer opponents added to make the game three players, you start to play. The board fills up with all sorts of categories and values. The more expensive questions are ostensibly more difficult, but you'll find that it's often a matter of knowing a topic or not knowing it.

And herein lies the main problem with J!2: the parser is just too damned picky. Even on the 'loosest' spelling option, it rarely takes slightly typoed words, and it never takes synonyms. The game becomes more of a 'read the mind of the guy who wrote the questions' than any real form of fun. It's absolutely exasperating, really.

Add this to the fact that the timer goes a little too fast for its own good, making the slower typers at a major disadvantage, and what could have been an entertaining party game becomes an exercise in frustration. Throw in pickiness about plurals, and you've got one of the more frustrating game experiences on the PSX.

There are some mildly interesting options in the game. It can keep track of 'careers' for you, so you can see how well you do as you progress in playing the game. You can also play a Solo Game, with no opponents. And there's a sample contestant exam, where you can be humiliated all over again and see just how little trivia you really know.

It's a fun game concept, really, but the execution is strictly sub-par.

Hard. Very hard. The questions are hard enough as is -- I get the ones on the TV show much more routinely than I do the ones in the game -- and the fact that the parser is indescribably picky only adds insult to injury. Prepare to spend half of your time playing this game staring blankly at the screen, or buzzing in and getting it wrong because of a missed letter or not using a synonym of the word that the game's looking for. It's terribly frustrating, really, and artificial difficulty like that does not make an entertaining gaming session.

For what they're worth, the controls in Jeopardy!: 2nd Edition are extremely easy to use. You buzz in, scroll around an alphabet to spell your answer, and occasionally use the auto-complete to finish up long phrases. Of course, said auto-complete never finishes the phrases correctly, and usually gets the plurals wrong, so you'll find it just as frustrating as if it weren't there in the first place. The core mechanics are flawed: a game like this needs to be much more forgiving, with an expansive library of synonyms, slight typographical errors, and the ability to weed out extraneous characters. It has none of these, and becomes nitpicky as hell.

PS2: The graphics Smoothing option on the PS2 will make little to no discernible difference -- J!2 doesn't exactly scream with textures to begin with. The Fast disc speed option reduces the load times somewhat, but they still tend to be a little on the long side. It's not interminable, but it's still irritating. You won't notice much of an improvement, if any, when playing this on a PS2.

While hardcore Jeopardy! fans may find some fun in Jeopardy!: 2nd Edition, the rest of us will probably stick with games that aren't quite as anal-retentive. Try it out if you must, but chances are the experience will be frustrating and fruitless. No amount of behind-the-scenes FMV can save a poor game product, and Jeopardy!: 2nd Edition is the proof.