Special Spaces
Like Press Your Luck, Whammy! had its own special spaces. Some were similar to those on the original, while some were completely new. For instance, since the board was no longer in a strictly square shape, "Pick-A-Corner" was now "Pick-A-Prize". When "Pick-A-Prize" was hit, all prizes on the board when the space was landed on lit up simultaneously, and the contestant had their choice of any one of them.
Directional spaces could now move the light up to four spaces. In addition, "Move One Space" could have three choices to pick from.
"$2,000 or Lose-A-Whammy" also remained on the board in Round 2.
The "+ ONE SPIN" spaces (except for "Double Your $$ + One Spin") were used only in the final round, and they were also accompanied by "or SPIN AGAIN" spaces; when one was hit, the contestant chose to take either the stated cash amount or another spin on the board without using up one of their "earned" spins. The first season featured $1,000 as the cash amount, while the second season used $555.
The new "Double Whammy" space worked like a regular Whammy with an additional physical prank (e.g., one Double Whammy animation featured the Whammy wrestling with an out-of-control water hose; after the animation finished, a hidden nozzle rose from the contestant's podium and squirted the contestant with water).
On most episodes of the first season, a GEM Car was available as a prize. However, it was extremely difficult to win, as a contestant had to hit a special "GEM" space in Round 1, then hit a special "CAR" space in Round 2 (the "spin again" decision was given on these spaces), then win the game, all without hitting a Whammy. In the second season, the same two-space mechanic was used for a Suzuki Aerio SX, where the two special spaces showed the top and the bottom halves of a car key. These halves were lost if the contestant hit a Whammy, but added to the Big Bank.
A new feature called "Big Bank" was added for the second season. The Big Bank on each episode began with $3,000, and any cash and prizes that the contestants lost after a Whammy was hit were added into the bank. Additionally, if a player was holding one or both halves of the car key and subsequently hit a Whammy, the key half/halves was/were also added to the bank. If a contestant hit a Big Bank square, the host asked an open-ended general-knowledge trivia question to the contestant, who collected the money and prizes in the bank if the question was answered correctly. Once the Big Bank was claimed by a contestant it was re-staked with $3,000. There were two Big Bank squares in Round 1 and one in Round 2.
Read more about this topic: Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck
Famous quotes containing the words special and/or spaces:
“When, in some obscure country town, the farmers come together to a special town meeting, to express their opinion on some subject which is vexing to the land, that, I think, is the true Congress, and the most respectable one that is ever assembled in the United States.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In any case, raw aggression is thought to be the peculiar province of men, as nurturing is the peculiar province of women.... The psychologist Erik Erikson discovered that, while little girls playing with blocks generally create pleasant interior spaces and attractive entrances, little boys are inclined to pile up the blocks as high as they can and then watch them fall down: “the contemplation of ruins,” Erikson observes, “is a masculine specialty.””
—Joyce Carol Oates (b. 1938)