Smash Party’ Review – An Education Party Game

‘Smash Party’ Review – An Education Party Game
One of the most fulfilling parts about writing here at The Indie Game Magazine is that we’re constantly being introduced to some of the most unique and innovative games that often don’t get covered on other video game websites.

One of the most fulfilling parts about writing here at The Indie Game Magazine is that we’re constantly being introduced to some of the most unique and innovative games that often don’t get covered on other video game websites. One example is how I recently learnedabout TigerFace Games , a new developer that has already released two games with a third coming out this Autumn. I’ve been a firm believer that hardware such as the iPad is the future of educational hardware, all we need is a large selection of educational apps to utilize it. As far as I’m concerned, gone are the days of the proprietary Leapfrog device, at the forefront of education games is TigerFace Games .

TigerFace Games currently has two games out, Equator and Smash Party . Both of these are aimed not only at being educational, but being fun to play as well. Our review of Equator can be found here.

Smash Party is a 4-player game that teaches children how to rhyme, spell, learn number patterns, and sums. Most of all Smash Party relies on being fun by its board game-like style and bringing friends or family members into the mix. The screen is layed down on a flat surface catered towards 4 players. You are presented with a menu where you will choose one of the four game modes listed above and choose a difficulty level which ranges from easy, medium, hard, and insane. Of course this is a game for children, specifically the 5-6 year old category, so insane to them may not be insane to you.

The way Smash Party works, is each player gets a turn as you’ll be asked a question on your portion of the screen and will be required to find the answer on other player’s sides which each have their own color. Once you find the answer and tap on who has it, it will be that players turn to solve the next problem.

For example, in Rhyme Time the person who is chosen first may be asked “Who has the word rhyming with sing?” The player will then look on the board and tap on who has the right answer and it will then transition to them. This is how it works for all the modes in Smash Party . In Missing Numbers you will have to figure out the pattern of numbers and find the missing number that meets the pattern, or find the right letter that is missing in a word in Missing Letters. The other mode is Smash Sums where you’ll get math problems to solve and find the answer.

Overall Smash Party is a pretty basic game that has the unique educational mechanic of bringing in 4 players. Player’s don’t actually compete against one another as there’s not a scoreboard; instead, everyone’s working together in a sense as you’re going through rounds of play that need to be completed by getting correct answers as a group. At the end of each round you’re rewarded with sets of interactive cinematics. Such as a celebration of balloons in which you can pop or little animals that pop up on the screen that you can tap on that will make sounds. It’s a fun little game that a group of kids can play together, or have a family all jump in.

One thing Smash Party suffers from is a few glitches. In my play time I found that pausing the game and unpausing would leave pieces of the pause screen there permanently until I exited out of the App and restarted it. There was also other weird little bugs like this. In some instances I would also experience a heavy drop in frame rate leaving the animations a lot less appealing.

Smash Party will run you about $6.50 on App Store after the currency conversion of the price of £3.99. While it may seem higher priced than a lot of games we review here on The Indie Game Magazine, in comparison to what Smash Party is competing against, educational products, it is priced very well. If you already have an iPad or are thinking of buying one it seems like the smarter choice to grab apps like Smash Party rather than buying a proprietary device and software from competing companies that will run you in the hundreds and be useless once the kid grows out of it. So to all parents out there, go out and buy one hell of a protective sleeve, some education apps like Smash Party , and let your child not only have fun, but learn as well.

To pick up Smash Party visit the App Storetoday!
[review pros=”4 Players, Educational & Fun” cons=”Few Glitches/Bugs” score=78]