Austin Powers: Operation Trivia

When we heard there was an Austin Powers game on the way we got understandably excited. Would it be a 3D shoot 'em up where you get to shag lots of beautiful women, naked except for large peace sign pendants, on your way to defeating Dr Evil? An adventure game implementing a new point-and-shag interface where you have to find a hairy chest piece? Or perhaps a not too exciting trivia quiz game where you get to answer some questions? Well, read the title and hazard a guess. As you start up, you're introduced to a contest called Win, Lose or Die which takes place at the Electric Psychedelic Pussycat Swingers Club, but something tells us you shouldn't be able to play live or die games with just one finger.

Comparisons with You Don't Know Jack are inevitable, but unfavourable to our adorably aging hipster. While is consistently funny and throws surprises at you every time you play it, Austin Powers is repetitive and gets irritating rather quickly. There are two major problems.

The first is that a large percentage of the questions are based on slices of American culture that never managed to make it over here - the dregs of 70s TV shows, personalities, toys and cereals that no one on this side of the Atlantic has ever heard of. The second is that the groovy Mike Myers has very little to do with the game - the quiz host has nothing to do with the films, and all the Austin and Dr Evil catchphrases are voiced by another actor.

Unless you've been in a cryogenic sleep since the Sixties, you're unlikely to find much in the way of innovation, even if it is fun for a while. Austin Powers is more of an Operation: Cash-in. Go capitalism, indeed.