Casual gamer, come on down! You're the next contestant on The Price is Right. Yep, one of the most popular television game shows has gone interactive with Ludia's first computer game offering, The Price is Right, that looks and plays like the real deal - though without Drew Carey or Bob Barker.

As you'd expect from a game like The Price is Right, you first choose a contestant and give him or her a name. You can't create your own but can choose from one of four characters (two males, two females). After typing in your name, the camera pans across the overly excited audience and naturally, you've been picked to "come on down" to be a contestant.

Similar to the TV show, the goal of the game is to win as much money and prizes as you can before getting three red strikes.

Contestant's Row is the first part of the game, where you and three other contestants must guess the price of a product without going over; whoever gets closest to the actual price gets to jump onstage and partake in three other games. For example, if you guess $500 for a patio heater from Desa - and yes, these are all real-world products in this game - and the actual price is $525, you'll likely win.

If you win Contestant's Row you get to play one of 16 different pricing games, ripped right out of the television show, such as Cliff Hangers, Punch-A-Bunch, Hole In One, Range Game, Master Key, Push Over, Freeze Frame, and so on. Most of these challenge you to guess the real price of a real product - like Scott's bathroom tissue paper or a Ghirardelli chocolates collection - with some slight variation. In Plinko, for example, you must guess if the left or right number in a two-digit price for a product is (e.g. $35) correct; then you get to drop coins down a Plinko board and hope it falls into the $10,000 slot instead of the $0 slot.

After you win a pricing game you can then test your luck by spinning The Big Wheel, with the aim to get as close to $1 dollar as you can without going over. If you land on, say, 85 cents, you might opt not to spin again, but you can spin twice. If you win against other contestants you finally play the Showcase Showdown. You know the drill: Rich Fields, the announcer, tells you about all these elaborate prizes like trips and cars, and are complimented by short video clips of real The Price is Right girls showing them to you. You must guess the value of the entire prize pack without going over. Be closer to the real price compared to your opponent and it's yours...

If you have never heard the game show host shouting "Come On Down" then you have missed one of the classic game shows of all time. The Price is Right played across the world and was more than popular with millions.

Now you can play The Price is Right on your computer and relive the game show action in your living room once again.

Basically the game follows the show theme where you guess the price of objects and if your the closest guess to the actual item price, you win...

Come on down! You're the next contestant on The Price is Right! One of the oldest televised gameshows still in production today, The Price is Right has seen several dozen seasons in the United States and is broadcast in almost as many countries (OK, il prezzo è giusto!, anyone?). That's a whole lot of people sitting in their living room trying to guess the price of a wine rack with removable shelves. Now, developer Ludia is bringing the same formula to the casual gaming realm, dropping you front row center as one of the contestants!

The Price is Right is a gameshow centered around guessing the prices of various retail items. From paper towels to dinnerware to cars, you'll come across a huge variety of things, some easier to peg than others. Each game begins with a showdown between you and three other contestants (computer-controlled in single player mode, but you can get some friends in on the fun, too!). A fully-voiced announcer describes each product in detail along with a short video clip from the television show. Then, enter your guess for the item's retail value. The contestant who comes closest without going over wins and earns the chance to win even more money.

After the price war is over, you'll participate in one of nearly two dozen minigames culled from the gameshow. Cliffhanger is here (you know, the yodeling hiker guy), along with Master Key, Range Game, Hole in One (or Two), and yes, Plinko! Each game is a variation on the price guessing theme, and the possible winnings vary with the level of difficulty. After completing one of the games, winners will move on to the Showcase Showdown, spinning the famous wheel just before the final competition begins.

Analysis: I'll admit, The Price is Right does command a bit of nostalgia for me, as it seems the show was always on TV in the background of my youth. Part of the reason this game is so fun is because it captures the show so well, only now you can actually participate instead of just yelling at the screen. My first few minutes playing taught me something very important: apparently I'm terrible at guessing prices...

Don't glance at our 3 out of 5-star rating for this game and write it off as a waste of time - on the contrary, we had fun with Ice Cream Mania - but it plays just like the other five dozen time management games available today. In the end, it's simply an average yet entertaining downloadable diversion that, at the very least, is worth playing the 60-minute free trial.

In the comic book-like presentation you learn that ice cream magnate Henry Rich has died, leaving the family to fight over his wealth. But according to Rich's will, each of his two daughters must start a business from scratch, and whoever makes the most money within a year will inherit the entire family fortune. You play as Cindy, whose honorable intentions are to keep her father's ice cream legacy alive, while her greedy sister simply wants her father's cash to spend it frivolously.

As you can tell, Ice Cream Mania starts out with a promising premise, but the developers don't run with it. In fact, you don't hear about the other sister while you're playing the game, therefore you lose your motivation to keep going. It would've been great if additional cut-scene story sequences showed your mean sister's progress to help give you more incentive to win. Ah well.

In the game-play department, though, Ice Cream Mania, while predictable, is fun. Not unlike Cake Mania-style restaurant games, here you're in charge of an ice cream stand and must serve ice cream to suit a customer's taste. Customers will belly up to the counter and a visual representation of what they want can be seen about their head. So after you give them a menu you might see that a headphone-wearing girl wants a yellow scoop of ice cream (lemon gelato?) in a regular cone and with chocolate sauce. In this case you'll click the yellow button on the ice cream machine (instead of blue, red or green), then click on the appropriate cone from a list of cones and cup styles, and then on the topping station select the brown button for chocolate sauce instead of vanilla or strawberry. Give it to the customer before they lose patience and they'll leave a tip, which you'll click on to pocket...

This time-management game gets you involved into the race for the fortune. But, of course, there's so much more than that.

So according to the story you are one the two daughters of an ice cream magnate Henry Rich. According to his will you need to compete with your sister now for the wealth he left.

The one who will eventually run her own business most successfully will get the entire father's fortune. But it's all about money for the other sister only, not for you. Your character isn't like that - she wants to keep her father's business alive. While your sister is doing it just out of her greed and desire to get the cash...