Whammy! is a game show that was a updated version of the game show Press Your Luck. It aired from April 15, 2002 to December 5, 2003. While the original series of Press Your Luck ran from 1983-1986. Game-play was basically the same, both using the Whammy to take away winnings of a contestant, there are some differences. Contestants were only allowed to get four Whammies before they were eliminated from the game. Whammy! was hosted by Todd Newton while Gary Kroeger did the announcing.
The first round of questions from Press Your Luck was taken away when they brought back Whammy!. They went straight to the "Big Board" round with a few modifications. Three contestants start the game with $1,000. They then took turns doing one spin at a time trying to rack up money and prizes. The contestants can make as many spins on the Big Board as they liked till they either got a Whammy or decided to stop by "freezing". In the first round the Big Board only has four Whammies to start, but as the contestants took there turns, more Whammies were added.
The Question Round came next. The host would ask a series of five questions and the contestant that buzzed in first would get to give a answer. The host would then repeat the answer given and add two more possible answers. The contestant that buzzed in and gave a answer was locked in with that given answer. The other two contestants could choose between the three answers. The host would then give the right answer and if the contestant that buzzed in was right, they would be rewarded with three spins while the other two if right got one.
The second Big Board round came next. Contestants use there spins to once again to rack up money and prizes trying to avoid getting a Whammy. Once the contestant gets to a high amount of money, they have the option to stop using their spins, if they have any left, and they can pass their spins the the next player that is to the left of them. The contestant who gets those spins have to use them with no option to pass them. If they get a Whammy while using those spins, the remaining spins get put in to the spins they won during the question round. The contestant who has the highest amount of money at the end of the round wins.
The Big Board in the game conceits of a bunch of prizes, money, spins, and Whammies. There are also a square called the Big Bank. The Big Bank starts off with $3,000 in it. If a contestant gets a Whammy, they lose their winnings and it then gets put into the Big Bank. If a contestant lands on the Big Bank, they are asked a random question that could be easy or hard. If they answer the question right they will get whatever money that has been collected in the Big Bank. The Big Board has eighteen squares on it. While the contestant would be spinning, the board would randomly light up squares until the contestant hit there buzzer. The board would stop on whatever square was lit up when the buzzer was hit.
There was also special spaces on the Big Board. If the Pick-A-Prize square got picked, all the prize would then light up and the contestants could pick from any of the prizes on the board. The directional space would allow the contestant to move one space giving them the option of three different squares. The choice of the next square is pick between $2,000 or Lose-A-Whammy. The +One Spin will give a prize or money along with another spin or make the contestant spin again. Along with the Whammies on the board came a Double Whammy square. A CAR square appeared in the second round that the contestant could win as long as they did not hit any Whammies.
Whammies were animated in 3-D unlike in Press Your Luck. In Press Your Luck they were hand-drawn. If a Whammy square was landed on, a Whammy would appear on the screen doing something like cutting hair or grass. Well this happend it would show the hair or grass clippings fly up into the air where they would then land on the contestant that got the Whammy. The Whammies followed a lot of pop culture with spoofs and antics relating to Harry Potter, Godzilla, and pop singers.
While the series did not last but two seasons, the game show is still fun to watch. It was entertaining to watch the contestants while spinning pleading to the the board,"No Whammies, No Whammies...STOP!". Also when they did land on a Whammy, you wanted to see what was going to happen to the contestant. The game really was a test of luck. Even though they are not making new episodes anymore, they still air reruns on GSN(Game Show Network). They normally run weekdays in the afternoon. If your home and need something to watch, check it out. I know I still get a good laugh out of Whammy! even though they're old episodes.
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