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Trying new things is what Blagman.co.uk is all about (well that and free stuff) so whenever I receive something that I’ve never tried before I can’t wait to try it out. Having never played an interactive DVD before and curious to see how it holds up to video game equivalents such as Buzz and Board Game faves such as Trivial Pursuit I was keen to give it a go.


Following the format of the TV show you’re given a series of picture and video clues and then asked to pick from 4 possible answers. Unlike last years DVD which focused on general knowledge this years DVD focuses only on entertainment which means you’ll be answering questions on TV, Music, Cinema and Sports, 4 categories which are sure to delight some and anger others. To make things harder you can’t just answer questions on one category which means movie buffs are as likely to do well as sports fans.

The questions in each category cover a wide range of areas and with the exception of music are mostly based on events within the last 10 years. There’s also the option for kids to play their own junior quiz which has easier questions based on topics such as Noddy and Sooty. I should point out that there are some questions which seem a little strange for children, one such example was a question asking for Ali G’s real name and another based on Nasty Nick who appeared on Big Brother six years ago. You really have to wonder what ‘kids’ are allowed to watch Big Brother in the first place, let alone 6 years ago…


On the subject of Nasty Nick, whilst playing the junior version of the game I also encountered two further questions based on his Big Brother antics within the same 50-question quiz session. Whilst the questions that appear are random I would have thought one question on a person would have been enough? Especially when you consider that not everyone would appreciate hearing three questions on a topic they may not know anything about.

The rest of the questions I encountered were nicely mixed and covered a wide range of topics and the game is made more interesting by the addition of up to four players. As the game is played with a single remote each player takes it in turns, but the order is always the same. This means if a movie buff goes first you can just copy their answers, which somewhat defeats the purpose of the quiz. What would have been much better would be if player order was rotated after each round.


Test the Nation isn’t a bad attempt at an interactive DVD and is actually quite good fun to play but it’s ultimately let down by the lack of question variety and the lack of confidentiality when selecting answers.