So...why all the hate for Joker, anyway?

[WooWho]

I was watching an episode of Bruce's Price is Right where they played Joker...and remembered that it was one of the least-liked pricing games (if not THE least-liked). But...why? I always thought the small prize price reveal was kinda neat, myself, but...

[blozier2006]

I obviously can't speak for everyone else, but the fact that you can lose through no fault of your own irritates me.

[vadernader]

I obviously can't speak for everyone else, but the fact that you can lose through no fault of your own irritates me.

Yeah, that's always been my problem with certain games like 1/2 Off. You can play perfectly and still lose on a show founded on rewarding people for knowing prices of things.

[JT]

I liked the set but I always felt it was an unnecessary add to the roster if you had Bonus and Shell.  And logically, it didn't make sense you had to get rid of the Joker.  When you play cards, the Joker is a good thing (wild card), so why would u want to discard it?  It wasn't that exciting to watch and I was surprised they felt it was worth adding to the line up 20+ years into the show's run.

[TPIRighteous]

I think Joker just wasn't interesting enough to justify how long it was. The pricing mechanic and reveal were cool, but the main board was small and chintzy, and the overarching concept was just boring. SP games kind of need to build up to something, like the "BONUS" window lighting up in Bonus Game, or the titular Rat Race.

[Casey]

To me, it just seemed like "we need another game that uses playing cards" and this is the best they could think of.  The reveal was boring, the game play itself was boring although the pricing mechanism was unique.  But a game of discard is just not very thrilling.

[JayC]

The small prize podium was one of the best looking props on the show and the pricing portion was unique (until Coming or Going debuted), but otherwise it was just the boring ugly step child of Shell Game. I guess they decided they wanted to have a third game to go along with it and Bonus Game, or maybe they were considering retiring one of them (Shell Game would be my guess because of it's length) but then decided not to but still have Joker. It was one of the few games that I groaned every time it was played.

[PriceFanArmadillo]

I liked the set but I always felt it was an unnecessary add to the roster if you had Bonus and Shell.

This is it.  Joker was basically a strictly harder version of Bonus and Shell that was created when Bonus and Shell already existed. 

[PIRfanSince72]

I too was never fond of Joker, for all of the reasons mentioned above.

Furthermore, it was kind of a rip-off of Five Price Tags.  You can price all 4 items correctly in that game and still lose, but at least it's for a very valuable prize.  Joker's prizes were the same value as Shell Game & Bonus Game usually and a perfect playing in Joker still leading to a loss just left too bitter a taste in my mouth. 

The cards used for Joker resembled the Gambit cards and the Hit-Me cards that were used, but I believe the Joker cards were on a smaller sized scale, yes?

This logic about perfect playing leading to a loss is one reason why I groan with Secret "X" too, although at least that game has a bit more of a dramatic reveal than Joker ever had.

[Alfonzo]

I too was never fond of Joker, for all of the reasons mentioned above.

Furthermore, it was kind of a rip-off of Five Price Tags.  You can price all 4 items correctly in that game and still lose, but at least it's for a very valuable prize.  Joker's prizes were the same value as Shell Game & Bonus Game usually and a perfect playing in Joker still leading to a loss just left too bitter a taste in my mouth. 

The cards used for Joker resembled the Gambit cards and the Hit-Me cards that were used, but I believe the Joker cards were on a smaller sized scale, yes?

This logic about perfect playing leading to a loss is one reason why I groan with Secret "X" too, although at least that game has a bit more of a dramatic reveal than Joker ever had.

In defense of Five Price Tags there is a strategy you can use to hone in on the price of the car even if you don't know it.

[JayC]

And also with Five Price Tags, you still need to price the car correctly to win even if you win all four choices. Assuming that at least two of the tags have a price that is too low or too high to be realistic, it's fully on the contestant if they still lose even with 4 tag choices. With Joker the contestant is still relying on luck to win the prize even if they had a 4 out of 5 chance.

[dmaingame]

Other than the game board looking like a piece of junk, Joker was a decent game.  I liked the game play and the spinning podium for the small prizes.  That and the pricing selection for the small prizes set Joker apart from similar small prize games like Shell Game.  The game could've been salvaged if they'd overhauled the game prop.  Or if they'd given the player a cash award of say $1,000.00 for perfect pricing whether they removed the Joker or not a la On the Nose.   

[SteveGavazzi]

The game could've been salvaged if they'd overhauled the game prop.

No, it couldn't.  That isn't the reason it was retired.