Classic Concentration Review

Straight from the small screen and into your home comes GameTek’s take on one of the greatest game shows of our time, Classic Concentration. The game begins with a pianist acrobatically playing the show’s theme on an 8-bit grand piano, followed by the character select screen. Both players select an avatar to represent them and the game begins! If only one person is playing, the computer acts as your opponent.

The game is a mix between a memory challenge and solving a rebus puzzle. A rebus puzzle is made up of images and letters combined together that depict words or phrases. The puzzles in this game are rudimentary but clever in their presentation. In each round, players clear the numbered game board by selecting two tiles at a time. The goal is to match two of the same words revealed by the tile. There are “wild cards” that automatically give the player a win for any word they uncover on their turn. When two tiles are matched, a scoreboard appears showing the item’s name followed by an opportunity to guess the answer to the puzzle.

Entering the answer can be clunky due to the slow cursor and the on-screen keyboard, but overall the play control is very intuitive. The music maintains a quirky theme throughout the game with just the right amount of game show atmosphere to make it enjoyable—even if it rarely changes. The pacing of the game is slow at times, but it’s easy to play and can be fun with the right opponent.

Graphics are reasonably good. The contestants look a bit blocky, but both the game tiles and puzzle images look fine. The puzzle images are clearly defined to the point where the player can easily solve a puzzle as more of the game board is revealed. The game environment is a decent representation of the real game show’s set. The music is good at first (especially the amazing piano performance at the title screen), but it becomes very repetitious and does not change much throughout the game.

Classic Concentration is a great diversion and perfect for memory games with a friend, but it does have some flaws that make for a mildly uneven playing experience. This might be a good game for Mom and Dad to gather around the television for some game night fun.

David Buck

Based in Colorado, David Buck is an author, musician, and media specialist. In his spare time, he composes music, writes science fiction, and builds scale models, mostly starships and movie cars.