Happy Monday, folks, and welcome to the Weekly Video Games Thread! I’m your host, Wolfman Jew, as we dive into the world of in-game quizzes.

A few weeks ago, I got to replay one of my absolute favorite games, Banjo-Kazooie. Alongside a number of other virtues, vices, quirks, and enigmas, it’s well known for its final level, Grunty’s Furnace Fun. It’s an in-game quiz show; you walk across a board, and to get past every block you have to answer a question from the bad guy. Sometimes, you have to guess the place where you heard a sound effect or musical sting. Sometimes you have to play a mini-game from an earlier level, even one you might not have tried. It is blisteringly unorthodox, and while there are a lot of problems to it, and around it, it’s a fantastically clever last minute swerve. You’re essentially taking a test on how well you know a video game, which is a different kind of mastery than dexterity or puzzle-solving acumen.

Banjo-Tooie would later repurpose this idea to lesser effect with the Tower of Tragedy, but there are other examples of this in the gaming scene. The Yakuza games have tests you have to answer, some of which are just in-jokes about other SEGA games like Super Monkey Ball and Crazy Taxi. Paper Mario and its sequels have a variety of tests, some optional and some not. An uniquely early game take on the concept could be seen in Chrono Trigger‘s trial, which quizzes you on stuff you might have glossed over completely from the opening. There are… others, too, I assume. I guess the test you take at the end of Prey sort of counts, but not really, since it’s more the game asking you what you feel. Anyway, I have a lot of affection for this idea, if largely because I have a lot of nostalgia for Banjo. So today’s prompt is all about these in-game quizzes and tests. Favorites? Least favorite? Or if there a form you’d like this trope to take that has never been attempted?

And, as always, what did you play this weekend?