Coming into a life of its own since Ken Bruce left his long-running radio show on Radio 2 and moved to Greatest Hots Radio, Popmaster can be seen on More4 and has been released as a board and card game.
I was sent the card game to try out and review. With three questions on each card, this can be played by any number of participants from a pair to a group.
There are over 200 questions in all, ranging across a variety of time periods and various types of pop(ular) music from disco and rap to hard rock and boybands.
I was born in the 70s, Generation X, and tried out the game with a baby boomer born in the 50s. Although I feel I have a strong interest in music generally, I am much stronger on the 80s and before, so struggled with some of the 21st century questions.
The first question on each card is mutiple choice, the others being a simple answer you have to find without a prompt.
It would be interesting to have an extra point for answering without the three choices, but of course as with any game, you can bend the rules and do this if you wish.
Popmaster is easy to play, as cards are shuffled and then picked up as the game progresses. Right answers get another card, wrong answers move on to the next player.
This is an entertaining game which feels very much like the Trivial Pursuit and similar question-based formats.
It will appeal to the whole family due to the range of questions and covers material from real names to statistics, album titles to collaborations – however, I would have welcomed some basic level questions alongside the more tricky ones!
Popmaster is now available from retailers, published by Ginger Fox, alongside the special edition board game.
***.5