How was coffee delivered to houses in the US in 1900? This simple question is one of many hundreds of thousands available in this additive and unique trivial quiz game. QuizUp is a fast passed trivial game that pits you against someone anywhere in the world or a friend. The aim is to out “quiz” your opponent in knowledge and speed.
First you pick a topic, as of writing there are 606, a number that is growing all the time. Once chosen the topic you can then go straight into playing an opponent. You will then be placed into the game room, questions comes up and you will then have to pick the right answer in 10 seconds, the timer starts as soon as the question and answers have been revealed. The faster you picked the better your score, so you should always be primed. You don’t even need to be available at the time, there is a feature that allows a person to challenge their friends while they are not available to play. They would be notified of the challenge and they can then accept it, it would then play out as if they were playing in real time, a very brilliant concept.
There is a competitive feel, once in the game you would notice a side bar depicting your score, the same goes with the opponent and so it’s a case of whose bar is bigger all the way through the game. After you have picked your answer it will also show what you opponent picked making for a sense of understanding of how you opponent is thinking. With a very simple and basic layout it’s easy to read the questions and choose answers, there are a variety of them although sometimes you do get the same question that would appear in a few games down the road. But this is countered with the ability to add on questions from the community and anyone can, you could even create a whole topic and watch it grow with the community’s input.
Leader boards is a very welcome factor, you have the ability to compete with people from your own location in any of the topics, be the best in the geographical location and you’re rewarded with a trophy of your achievement. Each topic has its own level up factor, every time you play against an opponent and finish it, you would gain XP which then level you up. Get to a certain level and you receive a title that will be placed below your profile for other to see. This is something that is dependent on the topic chosen and with 606 topics that allows for people to have unique titles.
Something that is different to other trivial games is how QuizUp is a social environment, apart from playing a quiz game you can participate in discussions which is like a forum which anybody can set up for a certain topic although limited to a time span as they do expire. There is the facility to chat with someone be it a friend or any opponent that you have met. It is these factors that draw away from other trivial games and make it that sociable unique feel.
Overall the game is a solid choice for anyone who has time on their hands and is a competitive person, I found it to be a way to learn new knowledge. There is the repetitiveness of questions that could occur if playing a topic for too long and did occur with network errors where I would be disconnect every so often. It does also feel a bit slow at certain times particularly loading up the game but other than that I feel this is a game anyone can just pick up and play at any time, with constant updates on current/new topics it never gets old. Sign up using your Twitter, Facebook or Google accounts, or with a standard email and password; and QuizUp your life.
Reviewed on Android