May 08, 2015 · 0. 0. May 8, 2015. #21. There was another kids game show (pretty sure it was on The Family Channel in the early '90s) where they could win prizes including games (and maybe bikes), but it seemed like the only one that they ever gave away was Whomp 'Em for NES. I seem to recall the host having short, curly hair, and the set was kind of plain ...
Sep 19, 2017 · It was just one of a host of Nickelodeon game shows in the 1990s that featured kids (and sometimes their families) competing in tests of physical and mental skill for game show glory and a wide ...
Kids had to compete in ridiculous physical games to be able to compete in the fun house. If I had to live on any TV game show set, it would have been Fun House. Featured video and image via ...
Long before reality TV took over, actual reality of a different sort ruled the airwaves. Game shows, which went through a boom in the '90s, feature people just like you and me plucked from ...
GUTS premiered 25 years ago — Sept. 19, 1992 — on the children’s programming channel, introducing viewers to the Extreme Arena and the Aggro Crag. It was just one of a host of Nickelodeon game shows in the 1990s ...
Nickelodeon’s very first game show, Double Dare was also its longest running, officially entering syndication in 1988 and spurring two spin-offs: Family Double Dare and Double Dare 2000. Long-time comedian warm-up host Marc Summers took on hosting duties and went on to build himself a brand as a Nickelodeon host.
A panel of Nickelodeon celebrities, which frequently included All That cast members Amanda Bynes, Lori Beth Denberg, Kevin Kopelow, and Danny Tamberelli, try to guess a fill-in-the-blank phrase describing the contestant’s secret talent or skill.
Mike O’Malley (yes, Kurt Hummel’s dad on Glee) made a memorable impression as host. Nickelodeon changed the show to Global GUTS, featuring kids from all over the world, and in 2008, the network attempted to reboot it with a family-focused team version called My Family’s Got GUTS.
Playground games and sports were taken to the next level in this Nickelodeon show that occasionally featured celebrity guests hosting games, like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jonathan Taylor Thomas. Hey, it was the '90s.
Chris Hardwick hosted this show where stuff was at stake. Teams of two brought three beloved objects each from home, and if the opposing team beat you to the correct answers, smash went your CD player. MST3K' s Joel Hodgson and comedian Brian Posehn wrote and occasionally starred in question sketches.
Exes were pitted against each other in a fake courtroom to decide who ultimately was responsible for their breakup. Each "client" was represented by a counselor of their own gender, though occasionally they'd step up for some karaoke to tell their own tale.
Combining delightful nerdy history trivia with an Indiana Jones adventure feel, each episode centered around a specific artifact and led to a temple run that tested contestants' physical and mental prowess.
Jenny McCarthy and Chris Hardwick originally hosted this living Guess Who- style dating game where choices would whittle down a pool of 50 dates to a handful, who would then compete to try and win a date with the person choosing.
In Fox Broadcasting's answer to Double Dare, two gender-segregated teams would compete against each other in messy mini-games and quiz questions to get a chance to run through the Fun House in the final round. The last season featured a celebrity ringer on each team, including a young Leo DiCaprio.
Marc Sommers hosted this pie-centric punishment game show, where contestants would watch pre-recorded segments that would be paused at specific points, whence the title question would come into play, before the tape was un-paused and the actual results were seen.
This late '80s game show was all about destroying rooms in a fake house. Two teams ran amok in a fabricated house where they had to search for specific items given to them by the host of the show. Finders Keepers concludes with the winning team having to search six rooms of the house for hidden items. It's 30 minutes of people trashing rooms. As a kid, it was incredibly satisfying.
The only game show on this list that doesn't involve challengers answering random trivia was Nickelodeon's Figure It Out. For each segment, a contestant would come out with a secret about themselves, which was usually a bizarre talent. A panel of Nickelodeon celebrities would come out and ask the contestant yes or no answers to try and "figure it out" their secret. If they could not find out the secret, the contestant won fabulous prizes. Additionally, there were "Secret Slime Actions," and if anyone on the panel performed said action, the panel member would get slimed and someone in the audience would win fabulous prizes.The show got a short-lived revival in 2012.
Although the show had over 100 episodes and ran for two seasons, Nickelodeon's Get The Picture didn't even make it a full year, starting and ending its run in 1991. On this series, contestants would answer trivia questions and if they answered correctly, would uncover a piece of a mystery picture behind a giant video screen, and they'd have to guess what it is. The finale was the winners of the previous rounds playing a giant game of memory where they had to correctly guess where random pictures were on the giant board.
Supermarket Sweep first aired between '65-'67 on ABC, but the show gained its popularity during the '90s, when Lifetime picked up and revamped the show.
However, the highlight of the show was the finale where contestants had to climb up a giant mountain called The Aggro Crag.
Across its run on multiple networks, Shop 'til You Drop aired from '91-'05 and filmed close to 1,000 episodes.
Fun House was Fox's attempt at replicating the greatness of Double Dare, but with a twist that made the finale of each episode a ton of fun. During the show, which ran from '88 to '91, contestants would battle each other in physical challenges.
It all started when developer Mike Dailly, like so many in the ‘90s, was messing around in Deluxe Paint. A simple animation became the inspiration for one of the best-received PC games of the early ‘90s, Lemmings. The puzzle-platformer comprised of several levels wherein a line of lemmings closely following each other had to complete stages without losing too many of their kin. Of course, the lemmings were more than willing to sacrifice themselves if necessary.
The ‘90s: what a time. It’s hard to ‘get a grip’ on the metamorphic changes and convoluted phases that encompassed the 1990s, a decade defined by both Tupac and Ricky Martin, by The Lion King and Silence of the Lambs. As far as gaming goes, it was a revolutionary time.
The Incredible Hulk: The Pantheon Saga , released by Eidos Interactive for PlayStation in 1996 is widely considered to be one of the worst video games of all time-and for good reason. With overly easy levels, bad graphics and spotty animation, it’s the Troll 2 of PlayStation games. Loosely based on the comic book series of the same name, Pantheon Saga follows The Hulk as he is kidnapped by a team of superheroes (named 'The Pantheon) then decides he’s going to lead the very team that held him captive, doing battle against villains like Piecemeal and the Maestro. Talk about bringing out the big guns.
Alien Syndrome had been around as both an arcade and DOS game since the late ‘80s, but when it was released on Game Gear, suddenly everyone was paying attention. Well, maybe not everyone.
After all, the Wing Commander games featured the talents of Mark Hamill and John Rhys-Davies and the motion picture inspired by the game starred Hollywood heavyweights Freddie Prinze Jr. and Matt Lillard.
Few gamers can forget Desert Strike, the 1992 Sega Genesis game inspired by the Gulf War and designed by Mike Posehn, who had no previous video game experience before developing the game. Desert Strike was epic and original, with intense Top Gun -like cutscenes, innovation controls and state-of-the-art 3D modeling. Only downside? It was incredibly hard. If there’s someone out there who has beaten the game, I am in awe. Truly.
True Lies was a box-office hit in 1994 and, though a lot of us choose to forget that film, the blockbuster was responsible for at least one good thing: the video game. The top-view action shooting game more or less plays out exactly like the movie. That’s right, the bathroom gunfight is a level.
This version of the show offered five celebrity panelists instead of six and changed how categories were presented to the audience. The basic premise is always that the celebrities and the contestant wrote their answer to a question on a card.
Like some of the other less than fondly recalled shows, The Reel to Reel Picture Show only ran for one season. The program saw contestants paired up with a celebrity. The team picked a category and a point value, a bit like Jeopardy.
Jessie Atkin holds an MFA in creative writing. She is a storyteller, writer, and reader. She's a YA connoisseur, Star Wars enthusiast, Harry Potter fanatic, Mets devotee, and trivia aficionado.
Carmen Sandiego ran, instead, on PBS and featured an in-house a cappella group.
It was the golden age of kids competing on camera and the heyday of Nickelodeon live-action shows. Due to the popularity of 90s game shows, there were also some very out-there duds, as well. Forget the drama of today's reality show programs and, instead, let's remember the high stakes and intense triumphs and failures of real on-screen competition.
Ridge Racer is another game which was found in many arcades in the early 90s. Although my own memories of it are from the arcade, it was later released on the PlayStation.
The 90s was an incredible time for video games. These are the forgotten classics that everyone played back in the day. The 1990s was a decade which yielded many innovations in gaming. It was the time in which games made the leap from sprite-based graphics to full 3D graphics. The introduction of discs instead of cartridges also meant games became ...
Back in 1999 a string of developers worked together to produce massively multiplayer online role-playing game Everquest. The first successful MMORPG to use 3D graphics, the game surpassed all early subscription expectations.
Soul Edge is a fighting game and the first title in the Soul Caliber series. It was originally released as an arcade game before being renamed Soul Blade for its release on PlayStation. The game was an experiment by Namco in exploring the idea of a weapon based fighting game.
One of the first ninja games to incorporate stealth, Tenchu: Stealth Assassins was an action-adventure game released in 1998. The involving gameplay and interesting mechanics made this game a success.
Metal Gear 2 is, not surprisingly, the sequel to the original Metal Gear. It was hugely popular back in 1990 when it was released. At the time the action-adventure stealth video game was groundbreaking in style, gameplay and graphics. It builds upon the original game and takes the stealth mechanism to a new level.
Role-playing fans in the ’90s went crazy over Baldur’s Gate, a fantasy RPG game based on a modified version of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules and set in Ed Greenwood’s Forgotten Realms setting.
Cool math's Lemonade Stand turns kids into business owners. The game, which you can still play today, forces you to be smart about buying your lemonade-making supplies and teaches you to put up with the consequences of unpredictable elements, such as the weather.
The Sims ' take on hotel-building was a constant quest for 5-star status (and to please the VIPs who came through unannounced). It was all the glory of Sim City on a smaller scale.
The entire Putt-Putt series was lit, but Putt-Putt Travels Through Time truly takes the cake. From covered wagons to primordial soup, this game is the reason millennials know their history in 2020.