Video games are the great equalizer. Kids can play on equal standing with adults. My kids bet me at games on a regular basis, and I'm not letting them win. With trivia games, however, the rules change. Winning is based on knowledge, not twitch. But EA's Smarty Pants brings the equalizer to trivia games.

Trivial Pursuit® Meets Twister®

Smarty Pants offers different game modes for different settings. Presenting trivia questions in various categories, players must choose the correct answer from four choices. A time limit puts the pressure on to answer quickly, but players can add time to the limit by following directions like waving, dancing, and jumping while reading and looking for the answer.

Family Mode allows players to work cooperatively, taking turns answering questions. As time runs short, the players who wait for their turns are instructed to perform one of four actions: dance, wave, jump, or shake the Wiimote, which will give the family extra time to answer questions within the time limit. Since players take turns, questions are tailored for each player according to age (While the content is appropriate for any age, children under 8 may have trouble answering the questions or otherwise playing the game, so it's recommended for 8+. Our 9-year-old handled it just fine, but our 6-year-old wouldn't be able to at all.), so children have as good a chance of answering their questions as adults.

While the game can be played in Family Mode with one shared Wiimote, we recommend having a Wiimote for each player. In single-controller mode, our kids got frustrated trying to do the actions while also trying to read and answer the questions. Since it doesn't require the nunchuck, if you haven't bought enough Wiimotes for the whole family, you'll want to (up to 4) if you buy this game.

Friends Mode turns the game competitive. Players spin a "Wheel of Fortune"-style wheel to choose a category, and players "buzz in" to try to answer like in "Jeopardy". Certain spaces on the wheel give the player a "Challenge Card" that adds variety to the game by allowing players to steal questions, change the category, etc. Bonus rounds, the ability to nudge the wheel like a pinball tilt (which takes some practice to be able to pull off), and a "Shooting Gallery" to determine the point value of a question add additional variety to the game.

The game has a solo mode, but it almost seems like an afterthought. In solo mode, you can't save your stats like you can in other modes, and you can't even choose a Mii as a character, instead having to use one of the game's "Guest" characters. Otherwise, the gameplay is like the Family Mode without the option to slow down the countdown clock. Think of it as practice mode.

8 Pieces in this Pie

The game includes 8 categories of questions: Art, Books, Entertainment, Fashion, Games, Places & People, Science, and Sports. While this provides a nice variety of questions, we found that it seemed like the questions seemed to skew a bit geeky. For example, most (though not all) of the "Games" questions are really "Video Games" questions, like video game history, etc., even though the symbol for the "Games" is a chess knight. Being a fairly geeky family, we didn't mind this, but if the Wii is your family's first video game system, you'll likely find frustration in a slightly more than expected number of questions, but "Books" and "Sports" categories help bring balance to the game.

Because the game chooses questions for you based on your age in Family Mode and remembers how you're doing in each category, it will, over time, adjust your difficulty on a per-category basis, so if those "Game" questions keep stumping you, you'll find them getting easier over time. Personally, I'll likely end up with the 8-year-old level of difficulty in "Books" and "Sports" pretty soon!

Trivia Fun for Everyone?

Our family really enjoys this game. If you like trivia games, but your kids aren't old enough for the "You Don't Know Jack" series (Rated "T"), or if you really enjoy cooperative family games, make sure this game finds itself under your tree this Christmas along with extra Wiimotes if necessary. (Any game that can be enjoyed as a family activity wins extra bonus points in our ratings scale.) If your kids are older, or if it's still just the two of you, this game is still worth the price of admission. If you live alone in your Fortress of Solitude though, you'll want to pass on this one unless you have at least one friend over regularly.