As you may have seen in my other posts, I like playing games, and when it comes to my iPhone it usually involves games with a social aspect. It’s just more fun to play with your friends than a computer. While I still play Zynga’s Hanging With Friends and Texas Hold’em, my friends and family are always playing new games to keep us all from actually doing any work. One new game that I have been playing of late is Draw Something, the top paid and free app in Apple’s App Store from OMGPOP. It’s a simple concept where you draw something and your friends try to guess what it is.
The objective of Draw Something is to get your opponent to guess what you’re drawing. It’s kind of like Pictionary but with an iPhone and less competition.
Starting the Game
Playing is rather simple and it’s not really competitive. It’s more of a cooperative endeavor, so this is not the game for you if you’re in the mood to kick someone’s butt. You start off by creating a new account from scratch with your email or you can connect your Facebook profile. From there you can manually find friends to play a game with using an email address or username, play with a random opponent, or find Facebook friends.
Once a game is started you are presented with three words. Each word has a different coin value, and you can use those coins for a new set of words or extra colors to draw with. If your partner guesses your drawing, you earn the amount of coins your word was worth. Of course, there’s always the option to buy more coins using the in-app purchase function. You also have the option to get a new set of words by using the bombs. You get 5 free bombs to start, and after that you have to either buy them with the coins you collected or just buy more coins. Once you select a word, you then have to draw that word for your friend to try to guess.
Gameplay
You get a few colors and brush sizes to draw with. You can erase or delete what you have drawn and start over. One thing you have to keep in mind, and its not evident at first, is that all your actions are being recorded, so can actually make a two part drawing. For example, if your word is ringtone, you can draw a diamond ring, erase it, and then draw a music note. Your opponent will see this entire process start to finish.
On the other end, your opponent gets to watch the video of your creative process, and are given a group of letters to try to guess the item you drew. They can rearrange the letters, and they have unlimited guesses so there’s no need to try to get it right the first time. If they are really stuck, they can pass but then no one gets coins. Once your friend has guessed correctly it’s now their turn to pick and draw. This routine goes back and fourth for as long as you want it. The counter that keeps track of the number of turns you’ve had actually stops at 99, but it will reset if someone passes.
Final Thoughts
Overall it’s a fun experience, but it does have issues. For one, there are times where games you have going will not work correctly. It skips turns or just doesn’t load up, but since OMGPOP’s last update it seems to work better in that regard. I’m sure there will be more updates like that considering Zynga’s latest $200 million acquisition of the company.
It’s not the easiest thing to draw on the iPhone’s small, limited 3.5 inch display. Sure, you can pick smaller brushes and that helps, but after playing with someone who has an iPad, I can see the level of detail they can put in while I’m drawing stick figures. As I mentioned before, it’s not really a competitive game, and if you don’t enjoy laughing at yours and your friends’ attempts at art then this game will quickly become boring to you. I find it fun because my family and friends will often post pictures on Facebook and have discussions over them. In fact, it’s what lots of people are doing on Facebook right now, and according to some sources more people are playing Draw Something on Facebook than Zynga’s Words with Friends.
Have you downloaded Draw Something? Is there another game you’d like to see us review? Let us know in the comment section below.
iTunes Link: Draw Something (Free)
Developer Website: OMGPOP
