I ‘ve already mentioned recently “ when reviewing Trivial Pursuit for iPhone “ that I like trivia, and trivia-based games. I also am not against beer. Not at all. When I lived in the UK I was always very fond of a good pub quiz. Beer plus trivia plus groups of friends competing for prizes and / or glory
, was always a mixture that held great appeal for me.
So an iPhone app called Pub Quiz sounded awfully good to me right away. Hell, it even has pictures of icy cold glasses of beer on its icon and new level screens. Hit the jump to hear whether the game is as good as those beers look
What Does It Do?
It tests your knowledge across a range of subjects “ Sport, History, Geography, Film, Pop Music, People, Science, and a catch-all Pot Luck category. You choose a category, answer questions before the timer runs out, and progress through rounds and levels that become increasingly difficult.
There are several helpful bonuses that can be obtained between rounds as well. For instance, if you complete a round very quickly you can try to follow one of the good ‘extra lives ‘ type cards (one that lets you change a question you find too tough, and one that lets you cheat and fills in a question ‘s answer for you) while the cards get rapidly shuffled (face down) round the screen and tap its correct position when they stop moving. If you get it right, you gain that card for use when you ‘re in a jam
Or you sometimes get a chance to match try to match four movie quotes to the films they were used in, or match song lyrics to an artist. If you can get four in a row within 40 seconds, you earn bonus points, tacked on immediately to your score
When a game finishes it lets you know your total score, offers you the chance to submit your score to the global leaderboard, and (if you do submit a score) gives you an immediate look at where your are in the rankings.
What Does It Do Well?
Pub Quiz is super easy to dive straight into. Gameplay is easy, moves along quickly, and is good fun. It ‘s one of those games that get you hooked very quickly, and that luckily you do not need big blocks of time to play (although you ‘ll find yourself spending good chunks of time with it just because it ‘s a lot of fun). You can burn through a few rounds during commercial breaks of a TV program for example.
I love the mix of questions in the app. It lives up to its name for me, in that the questions are not heavily US weighted, especially in areas like sport and pop music. There are questions covering UK, European and international sports, which is really cool to see
The same holds true for the questions in each topic area. There are plenty of questions that involve the USA of course, but there is also a good coverage of other nations amongst the history and geography questions, and amongst all the categories really.
The built-in global highscore leaderboard adds a bit of competitive fun and motivation
As you can see, I ‘m kicking arse and taking names. Well, actually it is taking my name, but even so. 🙂
What ‘s Not So Good?
There ‘s no option to save a game, and the app does not remember where you left off if you exit and go back into it “ so you have to start a brand new game.
The amount of questions needs to be increased. Its App Store description says it has 2,500+ questions and that they are ‘updated regularly ‘ “ but after several days of playing (admittedly, playing a lot) I ‘ve started seeing quite a few repeat questions, and I have not seen any indication of an updated question set. The pool of questions needs to be larger and / or updated more often.
Overall
I came to this game with very high hopes “ because the whole idea of a pub quiz has very good associations and memories for me. Happily, the game has lived up to those high hopes.
It is easy and comfortable to play, just like participating in a real pub quiz. It ‘s also fast-paced and challenging, and offers a great range of questions that fit the pub quiz mold very well.
Part of its App Store description claims that the game
really does have the pick-up-and-play-factor that will have you itching for just ‘one more go’
I ‘ve found that to be very true. I find myself firing up the game very often, and I am always keen for one more go at it. I like this app tons.
*** Please note that the app is rated 12+ for these reasons:
Pub Quiz is available in the App Store now, priced at $3.99.
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TAGS: iphone apps
