Powerplay is a two, three or four player arcade
trivia type game. It is set upon the heights of Mount
Olympus, way back in Roman times, and puts you in the
position of one of the ancient Gods or Goddesses who
live there.
The
Gods persistently argue over which of them is the wisest
and most powerful, so Zeus, sick of their bickering,
decides to set up a competition to settle their arguments
once and for all. After a great deal of thought, Zeus
devised Powerplay, which is played on the checkerboard
courtyard in the gardens of the Temple of Apollo.
Each
player has direct control over four warriors. When the
contest begins, both players' warriors appear at opposite
corners of the board. The first player is asked to select
a warrior, done by moving the joystick to cycle through
the pieces and then pressing fire button to make the
choice.
Once
an action has been taken, a question appears at the
bottom of the screen, the subject depending upon which
coloured square the warrior is standing on. Below the
question, four answers are printed on the four points
of a compass. Once you've decided which answer is the
correct one, you move the joystick in the relevant direction
to pick the answer -- don't be too slow because a time
limit constantly ticks down. If the chosen answer is
wrong, your turn has ended: if it's correct you're allowed
to move your warrior onto any of the eight adjacent
squares.
Four
of the squares on the board act as transporters and
if jumped onto, the warrior is randomly transported
to another transporter elsewhere on the board. Answering
enough questions correctly builds up your warrior's
'wisdom rating', and if enough points are added to the
total, it is given the opportunity to mutate and become
a more powerful individual.
When
one player tries to move his warrior into a square already
occupied by an opponent's piece, a challenge takes place.
Both players have to press their fire buttons to show
that they are ready, then a question and four answers
are printed up in the usual fashion. However, this time
both players have to race to guess the answer correctly.
The first player to choose the correct answer is judged
to have won the bout, but if a player chooses the wrong
answer then the opponent wins, or if the time limit
runs out and neither player has answered then the challenger
loses out. The loser has a chunk of points knocked off
his wisdom total and is mutated down a grade. If the
player is already on the lowest grade, his piece spins
out of existence and 'dies', playing no further part
in the game The first player to remove his/her opponent's
warriors wins the contest and is considered 'the wisest
of the Gods'.
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