Recently, my close circle of friends have gotten into board and trivia games. Every week we try to get together to play games like Risk, Clue, Monopoly, Cranium, Jeopardy, and Guitar Hero. Okay, so maybe that last one isn't a traditional board game, but it's an excuse to break out the guitars and take turns rocking out with each other. We're gamers at heart, after all.

That's why I'm secretly excited about EA's Smarty Pants. It combines the trivia action casual players love with competitive gaming action that keeps people like me on their toes. Smarty Pants is being designed to work with the Wii remote in ways that add to the experience, which is something a lot of other Wii titles fail to do. In fact, from what I've played of the game I can't think of a better interface for a trivia game on consoles.

To buzz-in to answer a question, you need to hold down the A Button and raise the Wii remote into the air. This is a smart design, but then it goes a step further if two people buzz at the same time. A tug-of-war mini-game pops up for the two dueling contestants, with which they needed to "pull" a virtual rope to their side to gain control of the question. I thought this was pretty neat and very appropriate for breaking a close buzz-in call. Plus, since it's not something you're going to be doing constantly (see: Rayman Raving Rabbids), I can live with the blatant remote shaking.

The category wheel that you spin between rounds must be physically "cranked" with the Wii remote, using a circular motion. The spaces on the wheel either automatically select a category or let a player select one instead. As the spinner slows, players can "nudge" the wheel up to ten times by flicking the remote, attempting to stop the wheel on a spot that is most favorable to them. The people I was playing against in my game were desperately attempting to make the spinner land away from a spot that would let me select the category for the next round, something that always seemed to happen. The trick, I soon discovered, was to let the other players use up all of their nudges, and then start nudging yourself once you can move unopposed. (Too bad this doesn't work on Wheel of Fortune.)

The game mode I spent most of my time with was the standard competitive mode, but playing with points wagering. With the wagering option set, all players can influence how many points each set of questions are worth by shooting at moving targets with the Wii remote's pointer function. In the early going, we all jacked up the point values by hitting the green high-value targets and avoiding the red negative-value targets. This was to my opponent's detriment, however, since I just got all of the questions right and built up a sizable lead. After I was a few thousand points clear, I made sure the next few rounds were offering fewer points by intentionally shooting at the negative-value targets while the other three players were trying to increase the point value to catch up with me. Even though the game compensated for my strategy by having fewer red targets in later rounds, because I'm so smart I just answered all the questions and won the game anyway.

Gloating aside, the biggest thing I noticed while playing Smarty Pants is that everyone is always participating in the game at all times, even when it's someone else's turn to act. The wheel spinning thing with the nudges is the best example of this, since it turns what would normally be a trivial action by one person into a highly competitive mini-game for four people. There are still places where only one person has full control over the gameplay, such as dancing for a points multiplier, but it's just a few moments later when everyone needs to devote their full attention back to the game, ready to act.

I think that's why Smarty Pants is going to succeed. However, I wonder if the game is still going to be as fun after playing it more than once or twice, or if the planned full retail price of $50 is going to be too steep for the casual audience EA is looking for. That doesn't matter to me, because I think I might just pick this game up and play it with my friends. That is, as soon as we stop playing Guitar Hero.