For years now New Zealanders have been calling for the return of Clash of the Codes, the high-octane 1990s game show in which teams of elite athletes competed over a series of low-budget obstacle courses and teamwork exercises. Well, they still haven't brought it back, but here is the next best thing.
None of the participants in the XVenture Family Challenge have ever won an Olympic gold in windsurfing or kayaking, but the spirit of the original codes is still strong. You feel it in how seriously everybody takes the challenges; it emanates from the brightly coloured team uniforms. The two shows even share the same presenter, Simon Barnett, who has barely aged a day in the intervening two decades.
The show is devised and produced by XVenture, an Australia-based company that runs mainly corporate team-building sessions. This is their second TV show after the more intense-looking XVenture Corporate Challenge, which aired in Australia in 2011. This is, if you're cynical, little more than a 30-minute ad for XVenture and the show's primary naming sponsor Ecostore.
But then, if you're cynical, what are you doing watching a show where the first challenge involves navigating a giant inflatable maze? The twist of the "Amazing Moments Maze" is that each member of the family team has some sensory handicap: one is blindfolded, one is wearing headphones, another isn't allowed to talk, while the fourth member can't see, hear or talk.
