Series - Gladiators

[List All Series] [List Series Full Text] [List Series Images] [List Series People] [List Series Subjects/Tags]

Language:	English
Publisher:	Boxtree -- United Kingdom
Categories:	Complexity Level : Advanced (Full Game System) Format : Paperback Game System : Randomization Method : Dice Game System : Scores Genre : Sports Fiction Licensed Property : Movie / TV Tie-In Target Age Group : Older Children Writing Style : Present Tense Writing Style : Second Person

These two gamebooks are based on Gladiators, the British version of the American Gladiators TV series, and each allows its reader to simulate the various competitive physical challenges portrayed in the series. Released a couple of years apart, the two books are wildly different in style and format. The first book uses a format that was later featured in the Star Wars Missions and Star Wars Episode I Adventures; in place of using numbered paragraphs or turning to specified pages, the reader simply reads the book straight through. Whenever a choice is made, the reader scans through a list of outcomes and finds the one that corresponds with the choice he or she made. A six-sided die is used to generate random numbers at certain points, and the whole book revolves around score, with different choices leading to different changes to a running total of points. The second book reverts to a more standard format featuring numbered paragraphs. The reader picks a gender and randomly determines five attributes (Stamina, Agility, Upper Body Strength, Lower Body Strength and Luck). Different attributes are tested as a result of choosing different actions, so it's best for the reader to make choices that reflect his or her strengths and weaknesses. Luck works just like the attribute of the same name in Fighting Fantasy. Both books are rather brief but are more replayable than average due to their lack of plot.

Gamebooks

1. Gladiators Game Book No. 1
2. Gladiators Game Book No. 2

User Comments

Perhaps my expectations for the Gladiators gamebooks were too high due to my sentiments for the classic series of the same name, having grown up watching the original US, UK and 2008 editions of the show. The experiences within these commercially successful gamebooks - each of which follows a different gameplay schematic - are largely driven by the luck-and/or-strategy-driven challenges, resembling more of a puzzle book than a gamebook in a certain sense, and very much determined to a point by the extent of each challenge's design. The resulting experience is neither brilliant nor disaffecting, and the overall impact of each book is lessened by a rather faulty scoring system in the first book and a more time-based mechanic at the end of the second book. It's not all that successful at replicating the fun of the events of the show, and the series as a whole never approaches its fullest potential (or at least how I imagined it might develop), which is a real shame. I wish a little more time had been put into the initial phase of design for the gameplay, and I also wish the novelty factor hadn't just been intended to sustain a few readthroughs at most. All that being said, while I don't recommend the books outright, there's still something vaguely enjoyable about the series... but it's best to go into it not expecting more than what you'll get.

--Shadeheart