Wheel! Of! Fortune! It’s the classic game of Hangman, but with tons of money and fabulous prizes up for grabs. Usually by the end of a game of Hangman, you have nothing to show for besides a badly drawn stick figure meeting its maker, so a cruise and a wad of cash is a pretty big step up. The game show’s been running since the mid-70’s, and will undoubtedly continue to air long after humanity has been wiped out, right alongside Jeopardy! and The Price is Right.
Gametek held the monopoly of game show-based video games with an iron fist back in the 80’s and 90’s; if it aired on American TV, chances are that they made a home version for NES players to slap into their consoles. They made no less than four separate Wheel of Fortune games for the NES, which begs the question only I am asking in the year 2022: how much NES Wheel is too much NES Wheel?
Wait no, the question is which Wheel game is the best Wheel game. My bad. Let’s find out!
1. Wheel of Fortune (1988)
The first Wheel game to grace the NES with its presence. Music is sparse, and the colour palettes chosen for the game are very drab, with solid black backgrounds and dull grey for the UI. Gameplay wise, it’s a bit more dynamic feeling to play than Jeopardy! on NES thanks to being able to miss turns and going bankrupt; spinning the wheel is a tense affair. There’s an artificially created sense of difficulty thanks to the timer being really short; if you stop to think about what letter you want to choose for longer than 3/4ths of a millisecond, running out of time and forfeiting your turn isn’t an uncommon occurrence. It’s a real pain in the butt. Also of note is that the “RSTLNE” rule was brought onto the TV show for the first time in 1988. This rule meant that players not only get to pick 5 consonants and a vowel to make the bonus round easier, but they also get the letters “RSTLNE” in addition to sweeten the deal. This rule is absent from this game, making the bonus round a lot trickier. Overall, I’d say that if you’re fan of the show or if you enjoy word games, it’s not too shabby. I wouldn’t say it’s actively worth tracking down, though.
2. Wheel of Fortune: Junior Edition (1989)
Re-read what I said about the first Wheel of Fortune game, because Junior Edition is literally the exact same game. Same sound effects, same drab colours, same everything. The only thing that’s changed is the colour of Vanna’s dress. Go figure. Even though Junior Edition came out in ’89, the “RSTLNE” rule is still absent, making the bonus round just as tricky as before. This is the kiddie edition, so the puzzles are simpler to give the 10 and under crowd a fighting chance at beating their older siblings at multiplayer. Like the last game, there are certainly worse ways to spend 20 minutes.
3. Wheel of Fortune: Family Edition (1990)
A game so nice [citation needed] they made it thrice. Once again, exactly the same as the previous two, with the same crummy (albeit recoloured) graphics shared between the games. The sound design is a bit better this time around, and thank goodness for that, because sound design is a deal breaker for me when it comes to NES game show video games. Even though it’s been two whole years since the “RSTLNE” rule was brought onto the show, it’s still absent from the games. Really drives home the fact that this Wheel of Fortune triple features are just copy/paste jobs of each other. But hey, this game is like $3 on eBay, so it won’t exactly break the bank if you want to give it a spin. Get it? Spin? Like the wheel. Yeah? Okay. Cool.
4. Wheel of Fortune: Featuring Vanna White (1992)
She may not be in the game outside of the title screen, but Vanna still manages to bring the thunder. This is far and away the best and most worthwhile of the NES Wheel of Fortune quadrilogy. Calling it a quadrilogy feels wrong somehow. Anyway. This one was made by a different development house – that being Imagitec Design – and it really shows. Colourful cartoonish graphics and a fun vibe make this the one to beat. Also, this one has the “RSTLNE” rule! Finally, something for the real Wheel fans in the room! If there’s only room for one NES Wheel of Fortune game in your heart for some bizarre reason, make it this one.
Final verdict: Wheel of Fortune Featuring Vanna White is far and away the best of the four NES Wheel games, but that’s not to say the other three are terrible. If you like a good brainteaser or can’t get enough of 8-bit Vanna awkwardly ambling across the screen, the other three aren’t half bad either. Just know that if you pass up the Vanna White edition, you’ll be missing out on one of the smuggest video game characters of all time in Rick. He doesn’t even say anything, but you can smell the misplaced confidence coming off of him like nobody’s business. Or maybe it’s just the cheap cologne mixing with one too many vodka tonics.
NESJunk 