There is no shortage of turn-based games in the App Store, and a few even have become common place on a huge number of iPhones at one point or another. From word games to drawing games, the possibilities are expansive. TryGuessThis blends the game-play style of Draw Something with the obsession of iPhoneography for a turn-based photo guessing game.
TryGuessThis (free in the App Store) is a new game for iPhone and iPod touch that focuses around sharing a photo of a specific thing, and challenging your opponent to guess the word the photo represents. Pulling inspiration straight from Draw Something, the interface feels familiar – but the game-play experience is different enough to set the app apart from the others.
TryGuessThis requires users to set up an account through an email address or by connecting through Facebook, which makes starting off an easy process. From there, challenging friends is done by entering an opponents username or email address, challenging Facebook friends, or by taking on a random opponent.
Once the game is started, the initiator of the game chooses a word from a list, or can enter their own. From there, players use the iPhone’s camera (or screenshots) to share images to their opponent. The other player then guesses what the image is of by building it from a rack of letters (much like Draw Something).
While the game-play is great concept, execution tended to feel half-baked. On several occasions, the app would crash when snapping photos or entering a custom word. TryGuessThis also lagged when loading images – the focus of the game – even when using LTE or high speed wi-fi connections.
TryGuessThis is a fun new take on a turn-based guessing game, which can be a fun experience for anyone who loves taking lots of photos on their iPhone’s high quality camera. While some of the features of the app feel sluggish or incomplete, the game has good potential. A larger user base of active players would also make TryGuessThis a more enjoyable experience (as there don’t seem to be a large number of active players), but encouraging a few friends to try it out via Facebook invite could make a fun and personalized experience.
TryGuessThis – a turn-based photo guessing game. Free in the App Store.