Last year, we had a ridiculously good stretch of mind game shows, with Bloody Game 3, Devil’s Plan 2, and Genius UK airing at the same time, with Youtube productions Gamebreaker and Life’s Game providing additional options. Since then, we’ve had a long break, but the silence was broken by a very worthwhile entry to the genre – Four Wishes!
Four Wishes fits everything you expect from a Korean mind game show. Math-heavy challenges, social alliances, and game-shattering twists – everything I love in a game show. Four Wishes is clearly a love letter to The Genius, even cribbing visual cues like the placeholders it shows for players when explaining a game.
In addition, Four Wishes adds some neat metagame wrinkles – there are four special challenges the players can figure out to grant them permanent bonus abilities in the game, but only if they figure out some very intricate side challenges, all while trying to do well enough in the main game to not be sent home.
I’ve watched three episodes thus far, and it’s fun watching the mysteries play out. The show even started with a few unsolved mysteries – what is the first game that’s showing as “completed” even though no one has played it? Why is one of the four wish boxes destroyed already, before anyone could use it?
Four Wishes is on Youtube but has TV-level production values, including really impressive visuals and editing. Dare I say this show could be dropped on Netflix and it would fit right in.
Something else I appreciate about Four Wishes is that all the players seem familiar with the genre and came ready to play. I’m especially impressed by a handful of players (many affiliated with escape rooms in some way!) who dominate both the games and metagames.
This show is definitely not meant for multitasking, especially if you don’t speak Korean and need to follow along with the subtitles. Dedicate some time, turn on Youtube, and check out one of the coolest new game shows available anywhere! Episode 1, with English subtitles, can be seen here.
Leave a Reply