The Impossible Quiz
A notoriously difficult Flash quiz game from 2007.
The Impossible Quiz is a point-and-click game released in 2007, created by the DeviantArt user Splapp-me-do. It became well-known for its extreme difficulty, featuring trick questions mixed with crude humor and nods to pop culture. Critics praised the game for its challenging nature, creative puzzles, and the way it pushed players to think unconventionally. Considered a key title during the peak of Flash-based browser games, it was later ported to iOS and Android in 2011 and led to several sequels.
The game has 110 questions and uses "Gonna Fly Now" as its main theme. Players start with three lives; a wrong answer triggers a bomb sound and costs a life, though they can try another answer before moving on. Losing all three lives ends the game. Some questions impose a time limit of one to ten seconds, causing an instant game over if missed. Seven "Skip" buttons are available, but they are all required for the final question. Mobile versions introduced a "Moron Mark" every 20 questions, letting players restart from that point if they lose all lives. The quiz is known for its irreverent humor, including scatological jokes and references to video games and other media. Many questions are abstract and rely on trial and error, making it a memory-based challenge that rewards outside-the-box thinking.
Splapp-me-do, based in the United Kingdom, first created the game as a demo for a college project but later expanded it independently. It debuted on DeviantArt in 2007 and spread to sites like Newgrounds and Not Doppler, as well as its own website. The developer cited the quiz section of Earthworm Jim 2's "The Villi People" level and the TV show *Shooting Stars* as influences. In 2011, inXile Entertainment published mobile versions. The game spawned sequels including *The Impossible Quiz 2*, *The Impossible Quiz Book*, and *The Impossible Quizmas*.
Critics responded positively, highlighting the difficulty and creative question design. A 2022 Polygon retrospective called the game "intentionally antagonistic" yet "satisfying," comparing it to *Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy* and *Unfair Mario*. The article noted how its popularity in schools encouraged collaboration among students despite being single-player. Wired's Jenny Williams emphasized that the game's reliance on memorization and logic made failure a key part of the experience, and that finding answers could
- creator
- Splapp-me-do (DeviantArt user)
- release_year
- 2007
- platforms
- Web (Flash), iOS, Android
- number_of_questions
- 110
- main_musical_theme
- Gonna Fly Now
- publisher_for_mobile
- inXile Entertainment
- mobile_release_year
- 2011
Lore & Background
The Impossible Quiz was created by a DeviantArt user known as Splapp-me-do, who lives in the United Kingdom. He released the game on the website in 2007, and it later appeared on Flash game websites such as Newgrounds and Not Doppler, along with being released on its own website. On Tumblr, he stated that he originally made the game as a demo in college for a website his friends developed, but later went back to develop it on his own time. The influences for the game were the quiz portion of the level 'The Villi People' in Earthworm Jim 2 and the quiz show Shooting Stars.
Reader's Guide
The Impossible Quiz is a point-and-click quiz game that consists of 110 questions, using 'Gonna Fly Now' as its main musical theme. Notorious for its difficulty, the quiz mixes multiple-choice trick questions similar to riddles, along with various challenges and puzzles. Despite the quiz's name and arduousness, the game is possible to beat. Many of the questions are abstract and unconventional in nature, and have been noted as requiring players to think outside the box. Considered a memory game, the quiz emphasizes trial-and-error gameplay. Players receive three lives to answer all the questions. Answering a question wrong results in the game producing a bomb sound to indicate the player losing a life, and having to pick another answer before proceeding to the next question. The game ends when players lose all three lives. However, some questions have a time limit ranging from one to ten seconds; if the player fails to answer the question before the allotted time, the game instantly ends. The game offers players seven 'Skip' buttons over the course of the game that grant the ability to bypass most questions, although these skips are useless due to having to use them all in the last question. In the mobile versions, a feature called a 'Moron Mark' appears every 20 questions which allows players to reset from a particular question if all lives are lost. The quiz was also noted for its irreverent humor. Some questions contained references to video games and popular culture, while other questions consisted of scatological humor.
Did You Know?
- The game's main musical theme is 'Gonna Fly Now'.
- Players receive seven 'Skip' buttons, but all must be used on the last question.
- The mobile versions include a 'Moron Mark' feature every 20 questions.
- The game was influenced by a quiz portion in Earthworm Jim 2 and the quiz show Shooting Stars.
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