Trivial Pursuit meets Pokemon developers

On Nov. 7, 2013, the latest member of the “I’ll just kill some time and play this game – oh dear I’ve been playing for an hour now I should stop, but after this round – actually, um one more -oh gosh it’s been three hours I should probably put this down,” franchise was released. Plain Vanilla Games released the new “Candy Crush Saga,” “Bejeweled Blitz,” or “Farmville;” however, they dubbed it “Quiz Up.” Does the game involve feeding farm animals candy in order to make jewels? Unfortunately not; however, Quiz Up does combine many different games into one.

It can be classified as a “trivia game,” but this isn’t any ordinary trivia game. The game takes the brilliance of classical trivia games such as Trivial Pursuit, Scene It!, Smarty Party, and You Must be an Idiot, and combines it with the technological craze of the 21^st century. An interactive, multiplayer trivia game, Quiz Up is outright addictive.

This game is free, both on the Apple iOS app store, as well as the Android Google Play store. You can sign up for an account (which has the sole purpose of keeping track of your record, and allowing you to add friends, and challenge friends) using Facebook, or simply by creating a new account with the Quiz Up database. A Facebook created account has the perks of already adding all of your Facebook friends who have the game into your “friends list,” which allows you to track the progress of your friends, as well as challenge them.

There are 434 topics in which you can play in, which are bundled up into 14 convenient categories: arts, business, educational, games, geography, history, lifestyle, literature, movies, music, nature, science, sports, and TV. Within each category, are many subcategories which makes this game so special and addictive. There is a category for everyone, and unlike most trivia games, which are broadly divided into categories with no subcategories, the game literally has a category for everyone. For example, within the movies category are the subcategories: Movies – General, Action and Adventure, Animation, Back to the Future (which is all about that specific movie), Batman (which is once again, just about Batman), The Big Lebowski, Bollywood, Caddyshack, Christmas movies, Classics, Coen Brothers, Comedy, The Dark Knight, Disney, Drama, Forrest Gump, The Godfather, The Golden Globes, Harry Potter, The Hobbit, Horror, The Hunger Games, Indiana Jones, James Bond, Kids and Family, Lord of the Tings, Martin Scorsese, Marvel Universe, Mean Girls, Meryl Streep, Movie Quotes, Movie Stars, Movie Titles, Name the Movie, The Oscars, The Oscars 2014, Pirates of the Carribean, Pixar, Quentin Tarantino, Rocky, Romantic, Science Fiction, Spider-Man Trilogy, Stanley Kubrick, Star Trek, Star Wars, Star Wars OT, Twilight, Wes Anderson, and finally, Woody Allen. If there was not a single topic within the movies category that interests you, head on over to the Quiz Up website to check out every single topic, because typing out the subcategories for the movies category was more than enough exercise for today, thank you very much.

Without the “in app purchase” junk, all categories and subcategories are offered; therefore, you do not need to pay just to “unlock more,” as many other apps would have it. The only in app purchases that are offered are purchases which double, triple, or quadruple XP point earned in a victory; however, unless you are striving to be the #1 in your country, or in the world in a specific topic, XP “add-ons” really make no difference. The fact that you are challenging people across the world, in real time, in different topics of trivia, is already fascinating. Composed of seven questions per game, with a time limit of 10 seconds per question, Quiz Up is a fast faced, super fun game. I would love to spend the rest of this post explaining more about Quiz Up; however, you should just check the game out!

With achievements that you can unlock, titles that you earn beside your name every time you advance 10 levels in a category, and stats about your record, Quiz Up is a game that you just can’t put down. What if your win-loss ratio is not good enough for you? What if you just have a few more levels before you unlock a new title? What if you saw somebody wearing a title that you so desperately want to unlock? What if a friend has challenged you and you’ve lost?

In conclusion, Quiz Up is a brilliant game, and I am going to stop writing on it, so you can go download it and play on it, and I can continue to unlock more titles, and beat more friends!

Thanks for reading this week’s post!