Chillingo’s Cut the Rope was a big success, but it’s difficult to imagine the company’s latest app Quiz Climber having quite the same success. In fact, it’s a bit of a disappointment.
The central concept is strong enough and that’s partly because the app is nothing more than a basic quiz game filled with general knowledge and pop culture questions. Yes there’s a fluffy chipmunk who climbs the tree as you answer each question, but that’s nothing more than a backdrop. If anything we wouldn’t be all that surprised if we saw this game on a pub itbox.
For a quick bit of fun, the game delivers, but the central problem stems from that fact that you only have one life. Admittedly, if you answer enough questions correctly then you can earn a lifeline, which gives you the chance to choose a different question when you get one wrong. Alternatively, you can skip all that and choose to buy lifelines using an In-App Purchase. But is it worth paying£0.69 just for the sake of 20 lifelines? It all seems a bit cheeky considering you’ve already forked out £1.49 for the app, and presumably the choice to give you only one life is a decision to influence the money making scheme.
Annoyingly, the money spinning techniques don’t actually end there because with every question you get wrong, you are once again asked the question of whether you would like to buy lifelines. Surely, this prompt could appear once in every five times, if only so you don’t feel like you’re constantly being harassed to hand over more money.
Quiz Climberlooks the part and on a basic level it is, because you can’t dispute it’s an enjoyable, easy to usetrivia game, but is it really worth $1.99? Definitely not.
