About.com Rating

The Press Your Luck game on Facebook will look familiar, not only for its likeness to the classic game show, but also for its similarity to other Facebook game shows. Friend involvement is quite limited, so if you're the type who likes to play solo, this is a fun little way to spend part of your day. And yes, there are Whammies throughout.

Starting Your Game

After the game loads you're presented with the opening menu.

You get three free games to start out with each day, and you can earn more in various ways. One of those ways is be sitting through a sponsored ad, which isn't all that intrusive and can be skipped if you don't really want the extra episode.

You'll recognize the theme music right away, which is a nice touch, and the Whammy sound effects are present throughout the game.

To start your game, choose two of your friends to be your "wild cards." These folks will be sent any trivia questions that you pass on during the front end of your game. Keep in mind that once you choose someone as a wild card, you won't be able to select him or her again until a certain amount of time passes, even if you don't actually call on him or her during your game.

Round One

The first round of Press Your Luck is a trivia-based game made up of six questions. The money ladder looks like this:

• $1,000
• $800
• $700
• $600
• $500
• Whammy

Game play is very similar to the format of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in that you're up against nine other people, and the trivia questions are four-answer multiple choice.

The dollar amounts are also randomly assigned to each question. Answer a question correctly, get the corresponding prize amount. The values actually go up based on how many people answered incorrectly, and if you're one of the fastest responders you'll also get a bonus.

The Whammy question doesn't offer any points, but if you get that question wrong your current bank is wiped clean.

If you choose to pass a question to one of your wild cards, you get the full point value for that question. Of course you can only use each wild card once, so use them carefully.

The Big Board

After the first round, the top three scorers move on to the Big Board. This is where you'll be shouting "Big bucks, no Whammies!" at your computer screen.

You start off with five spins, and there's a giant Stop button to click on to stop the board. As in the actual game show, you can end up with prizes, cash, free spins, or the dreaded Whammy. Graphics and sound effects are based on the real game too, so it's a real kick to get this far in the game and see it all playing out.

You can also pass your spins, or be forced to play any that are passed along to you.

Press Your Luck Extras

After playing the game, you have the option of challenging your friends. This actually sends a note to your selected friends offering them the opportunity to beat your score. If the challenge is accepted then a $5,000 bonus is given to the winner.

As with most Facebook games, you can level up as you play more games and earn more cash. Levelling up gives you more episodes to play.

Fun and Nostalgia

If you remember watching Press Your Luck then this game is worth playing just for the nostalgia factor. The dancing and playing Whammies combined with the Big Board and the theme music are just enough to make it feel that the show was airing only recently.

Stripped down to basics, it's a relatively simple little trivia game that you'll likely enjoy. The only real downsides that I could see were that the friend interaction is somewhat limited, and the trivia questions tend to repeat quite often. Still, it's an enjoyable game and comparable to other game show games on Facebook.