The most famous version of Bop-It resembles a wand, of sorts, with a twistable cone on one end, a pullable paddle on another, and a large round bop-able button in between. The aim of the game is to keep up with an announcer who issues commands — Bop it! Twist it! Pull it! — which correspond to the different parts of the wand. But as the game goes on, the announcer speaks faster and faster, until the player reaches the max score or misses a command.
When a player messes up, the announcer will sound disappointed. But the effect was once the iconic "D'oh!" exclamation of Homer Simpson, at least in the demo that inventor Dan Klitsner showed to Hasbro. Obviously, that was changed before release (via AdWeek).
The Bop-It line of toys has a rhythmic gameplay that has inspired comparisons to a much older toy: Simon (also owned by Hasbro). Nic Ricketts, curator of the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, NY, sees similarities in the patterns and motion-based gameplay of both toys. He remarked to AdWeek that if Simon led to Bop-It, Bop-It pointed to later devices like the Nintendo Wii.
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