My all time favorite TV show is Mystery Science Theater 3000.  Man I love that show!  In it, a guy and two robot puppets are sent out in a space station by two mad scientists, and are forced to watch bad movies and make fun of them.  You might’ve seen this show and not even realized it, because most of it is just the old movie with a silhouette of theater seats and the characters at the bottom talking all throughout the movie.  Some of the show’s creators and stars have gone on to do similar works, like Rifftrax, which are great, too.  But MST3K is still my favorite.  I always thought it would’ve been cool if there was a MST3K video game.  Last year I reviewed What the Dub?!, which is probably about as close to a MST3K video game as we’ll get.  Until now, because the makers of What the Dub?! have teamed up with Rifftrax to make a similar game!  It’s available on most consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.

When you start the game, they’ll prompt you to go to a web site on your phone and type in a room code.  It’s VERY similar to how Jackbox games work.  You’ll use your phone to type in answers and vote on others.  There are two modes of play.  In Write a Riff, you’ll watch clips of old movies featured on Rifftrax (I even remember some of them), type in missing dialogue in your phone, and vote on the funniest submissions.  You’ll do nearly the same thing in Pick a Riff, but instead of writing ones of your own, you’ll pick from a preset selection.  This mode isn’t nearly as fun, though, and they don’t do a good job of shuffling the answers.  Whoever gets the most votes at the end of a set number of rounds in either mode wins.

One thing they added to this game over What the Dub?! is a Riffbot.  In each round, the actual jokes from Mike Nelsen, Bill Corbett, or Kevin Murphy will play along with the others, and you can vote for it, too if you like.  So there’s a possibility the computer can win!  One problem I did have with What the Dub?! is that you HAD to have four players to play.  But here you can play with less.  You can even play with one person, even though it’s pointless and the game won’t save your scores that way.  But it’s nice they let you play with less folks.  I also liked some of the details like the fact your player icons are Rifftrax and MST3K characters like the Ice Cream Bunny and Mr. B. Natural.

There was one major problem that kind of killed the game for me, though.  I had a hard time getting my phone to connect with the game server, and I had to reset nearly every time.  And sometimes it wouldn’t register my answers or votes.  I don’t know if it was a problem with our phone connections, but I’ve never had that problem with Jackbox games or What the Dub?!  So that kind of killed the fun for me.

Kid Factor:

Rifftrax: The Game is rated T for Teen with ESRB descriptors of Mild Violence, Suggestive Themes, and Language.  The movie clips are just that campy B-movie stuff, and the jokes are as dirty as you make them.  Because the Riffbot sometimes uses curse words and such, I’d say this game is best for kids whose parents are OK with them watching stuff like Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax.

Tags: Game Reviews, Movies with Children, Television