Knowledge Is Power: Decades Review - Screenshot 1 of 2

We’re not sure if anyone needed it, but a new Knowledge Is Power game is here. Knowledge Is Power: Decades does exactly what it says on the tin, taking you through questions themed on the 80s through to the 2010s. That’s pretty much all there is to it, with Wish Studios not adding much to a game that was a solid addition to the phone-based PlayLink repertoire last year.

As with the previous game, players vote on which topic they’d like to be quizzed on before using Power Plays – distractions that affect your opponents’ phone screen – to delay their opponents’ answers. Unlike most quiz games, Knowledge is Power allows you to answer the same question multiple times, though you’ll be penalised. This continues until a final round occurs, where everybody takes their place on a quiz pyramid and answers rapid-fire questions in order to reach the top first.

Knowledge Is Power: Decades Review - Screenshot 2 of 2

As with before, since so much time is spent on choosing topics and Power Plays, there’s not a lot of quizzing going on. There aren’t many questions per game, and the time spent answering them is a lot shorter than the time spent on other aspects of Knowledge Is Power. The decades theme makes this process even more repetitive since you’ll spend every few questions just choosing a decade – at least in the first game the topics were dynamic and constantly changed.

Apart from the new theme, there’s only one major addition in this year’s iteration: a new round that sees you rotating a constantly-changing word wheel on your phone in order to match it with the correct definition. It’s nothing that exciting, but at least it breaks up the cycle.

Other than that, the new things are only minor. There are new characters and Power Plays, and admittedly the game’s art style is very charming, with a bright colour palette and some quirky characters onscreen.

Still, after playing this with friends, it’s hard not to wonder why this game was released in the first place. At the end of the day it’s essentially last year’s game with a new theme slapped on and a few new shiny bits added here and there, and the repetition that the decades theme brings means that’s the original Knowledge Is Power is a more fun experience than this edition. It’s certainly not a bad game by any means, but it’s hard to argue that it’s worth downloading another PlayLink mobile app for.

Conclusion

Knowledge Is Power: Decades is still the solid quiz game that its predecessor was, but other than that it's hard to argue a case for its existence. The visual style is fun and appealing, but the format is still too light on questions and there's not much in this year's edition that wasn't already in the original. It certainly does its job, but not much else.