Can you spot the differences between Arial and Helvetica? Times New Roman and Baskerville? Prove it.
That ‘s the very simple challenge offered up by the new Typewar app for iPhone. If you ‘re someone who enjoys and appreciates typography, and especially if you ‘re that and you also think you know a thing or two about fonts, then this game should be right up your alley.
I sure thought it was right up mine when I first spotted it last night. The game ‘s description warned me that it is ‘insanely addictive ‘. Really? An addictive game all about fonts?
Hell yes it is. Or at least that ‘s how I felt after roughly four hours of almost continuous play last night. I think this game even ruined my viewing of the first new episode of ‘Burn Notice ‘.
The game could not be much more basic. You login “ if you already have a (free) Typewar account via their website “ or register quickly and painlessly from within the app. Then you start flexing your typography knowledge muscles.
The game is simple and fast moving “ maybe not fast moving like one of those Zombie-blasting, first person shootery type games, but very fast moving for a First Person Font Spotting app.
It shows you a single, large letter character and presents you with two choices on the font name. You tap to select the one you think it is.
As you can see in the screencap above, I started out in 1,403rd place and on Level 1. The app tells you your current score, what place you ‘re in, and the level you ‘re on (and how far through it you are) continuously in its rather chunky bottom bar.
Once you tap your selection of which font you think is right, you instantly get told if you ‘re right or wrong
You get a quick second to gloat about getting your pick right (or kicking yourself for messing up) and the game throws the next letter at you. There ‘s no timer or time limit on making your selection, and the app remembers exactly where you were at when you last left it when you exit out of it and go back in.
There ‘s also no apparent limit on how many times you can get an answer wrong “ you just lose points and lose ground each time you make a mistake. It feels a bit like weight loss and gain in this respect though “ in that you can get docked quite a few points for a wrong answer and it can take quite a few correct ones to make up lost ground.
There are some quite easy choices thrown at you “ like having Garamond (which has serifs) being presented as an option for a clearly san-serif character
And there are definitely some not so easy choices as you advance through the levels
It takes a fair while (at least for me) to work through each level and climb up the levels and standings. So far, after my nearly four hours last night and various occasional little bursts of play today, I ‘m at around 214th and Level 18. In addition to the view of my status in the app ‘s bottom bar, I can also tap Menu and get a detailed view of my stats. I ‘m a sports fan “ so I love me some stats.
So this game has rapidly become my geeky obsession. I have found it extremely addictive. One of those games that I find myself saying ‘just one more level ‘ or ‘I just need to crack the Top 500 ‘ or similar over and over. Also one of those games that is not greedy in its grabbing of my time. As in, I don ‘t need big chunks of time available to enjoy it “ because it remembers right where I am and is such a quick and easy one to play. It ‘s great for those situations where you just have a few minutes to kill and cannot be arsed being productive. For example, I found myself diving into it today while waiting for a friend who went to the restroom at a restaurant at lunch, and when I was waiting to pickup my daughter at school.
The game works just fine over 3G by the way, and probably over Edge as well I imagine.
Part of the app ‘s description reads as follows:
WARNING: Typewar is insanely addictive. Please use responsibly.
I have to agree with that 100%. If you ‘re a fonts person, you ‘ll love this app. It is easily the most addictive and compelling First Person Fonts Shooter in the App Store. 🙂
You can find Typewar in the iPhone App Store now, priced at $1.99.
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TAGS: iphone apps
