Immortalizing Alex Trebek via the Wii
By: Aaron Moy
Tags: Features, Gaming, Videogames, Nintendo, Television

Immortalizing Alex Trebek via the Wii

Despite the passing of a longtime television icon, his digital likeness lives on forever in video games

My family wasn’t the kind to gather around the TV every week in anticipation of another episode of Jeopardy! or any other program in particular. The times we would watch the show would be if it happened to come on while we were eating dinner, or during the holidays in the place of a Christmas movie. Growing up in my family, however, was a process that fostered education, sciences, and continued learning. While we didn’t necessarily fix our lives around Jeopardy!, the quiz-competition show brought us together by simply being there on the television screen unattended. Before long, we’d find ourselves guessing the answers and speculating about the contestants over Thanksgiving turkey.

I grew up in the sixth and seventh generation of video games. Above all else, the seventh generation especially cared about multiplayer; games that you could play with your family and friends. Even grandma could join in the fun. It was also the golden age of motion controls, with the Wii series of games removing any video game complexity a parent wouldn’t be able to understand. The Wii console was fully responsible for providing a “games night” where no one was fighting or at all angry with one another. By the time the eighth generation of games came out, such opportunities became fewer. While Wii Sports, particularly the bowling game, was the go-to for our gatherings, it was closely followed by Jeopardy! for Wii.

Source: Nintendo.

Jeopardy! would usually be the second game we’d play if we had worn ourselves out with Wii Sports. Every time the game started up, my parents always thought it was funny to see the uncanny resemblance of the avatar Alex Trebek to the one on the show. Allowing players to play as their Miis was a plus, as we were able to insert the versions of ourselves from the Wii Sports bowling alley right there on the stage with Alex. Players were also encouraged to continue racking up their wins with the promise of new, customizable outfits for said Miis, and a feature that would allow your Mii to express disappointment or glee on command. If you could keep the steadiest hand ever, you could even write in your own signature like the real show contestants.

In spite of the engaging features, however, the game’s user interface was astronomically clunky, with the main menu display that looked like it was made in 5 minutes and the same irritating sound effect being used to select every single option. No one cared at the time though, especially not my child self who had not yet honed his critical eye. I remember more frustration being over the game’s controls — it would always seem like Player 1 had the advantage of ringing in for a question first. We’d go as far as changing the batteries to improve the chances for the rest of us, but the real issue was that Player 1 was my dad.

Source: Nintendo.

My dad was the absolute, undefeated, undisputed champion of Wii Jeopardy!. Playing on easy mode didn’t make things any better for the rest of us because he would be able to know every answer for every single question. Even if he didn’t know the answer, he’d ring in and somehow manage to guess it from the multiple-choice options. As a constant victor, he would always get to share the stage with digital Alex Trebek at the end of the game and get his congratulations. Myself, my mom, and my brother were always at the other end of Alex’s pitiful quips such as “Nope, sorry,” or “No, that’s not correct.”

Whether you were winning or losing, Alex’s reading voice for the clues was just as crisp and warm as you could hear it on the show. As we played the game more often, we sometimes had an occasional repeat clue, so Alex’s praise felt earned when you finally gave him the correct answer. On the show, Alex was known to occasionally make glib or sassy remarks to contestants that made large blunders, and the game offered these opportunities as well. Guessing a wrong answer would prompt him to ask if anyone else wanted “to hazard a guess on this [clue]” and he’d be sure to remark about being “back on the plus side” if you managed to scrape out of debt.

Source: Nintendo & Jeopardy!

“I doubt if there are many differences between the ‘real’ Alex Trebek and Alex Trebek, the host of Jeopardy!.” — Alex Trebek, 1988 interview with ET

Jeopardy! for Wii, released in 2010, was certainly not the first time Alex Trebek found himself in a video game. Jeopardy! video games existed as early as 1987 on platforms such as the Commodore 64 and Nintendo Entertainment System, and each offered a version of Alex at the time. The difference is that Wii Jeopardy! provided me and my family the version of him we remember best— a gentle, elderly teacher who greatly cared about education. It was the only version of the game that put us right in front of the clue board, interacting with him instead of just guessing answers alone against an AI. Yet, like something out of a sci-fi novel, Alex’s likeness and character survived his death through digitization. I look forward to the next time that my family will have our game night together, even if only to share the stage with Alex after finally beating my dad.