We won’t be back after this commercial break
Family Feud 2 brings the classic TV game show to your mobile device, but like the invasive product placement you’ll see in almost any cheesy game show, its intrusive ads and pushy upgrades are enough to make you hit the off button.
Survey says… a familiar game
Family Feud 2 is just like the classic TV game show: respond with the top surveyed answers in three rounds to see if you can make it to the all-important Fast Money Round and cash in with coins. If you can’t make it to 200 points in the Fast Money Round by yourself, ask a friend for help.
You can play as a guest or sign in with Facebook to play against friends. If you win, you’ll get more coins, which you use to play the game. The more you play and win, the higher your level will be. Once you reach level five, you’ll be able to start playing in tournaments with bigger payouts.
What makes the game a bit less difficult than the traditional version is that survey responses start to appear as you’re typing them. This not only gives you an indication of whether or not an answer you were going to write is correct, but in some cases, actually spoon feeds you the answers.
Survey says… too pushy
Family Feud 2 is pushy with both ads and in-app purchases.
Gameplay is based on a coins system. Each game costs 30 coins, while tournaments cost 50 coins. You get coins if you win a game or tournament after collecting 200 points in the Fast Money Round. If you log in with Facebook, you’ll automatically get 100 coins, but you’ll also accumulate coins painfully slowly – one every five minutes– if you’d prefer to wait. You can also watch ads or sign up to various websites to get more coins for free. The other option is buying coins, and there’s no shortage of prompting for you to spend some real money in order to have enough fake money to play the game.
Ads pop up constantly between gameplay, and you’ll also get notifications in the app’s messaging center to download more games, both invasive and annoying.
Survey says… sounds just like the original
The music, voiceover, and sounds in Family Feud 2 are very loyal to the original show. The graphics are decent and do a good job of recreating the atmosphere of the original on a mobile screen, although some buttons are still a bit clunky-looking.
In terms of performance, Family Feud 2 is pretty quick and easy to maneuver around, but initial loading times are relatively slow, and I had some issues connecting to Facebook. App crashes were also more prevalent than expected.
Survey says… pass
If you’re a huge fan of Family Feud, you’ll probably overlook the ads and might even purchase coins for a pretty accurate Family Feud experience. If, however, you’re playing the game as a casual distraction, you might actually find yourself instead distracted by Family Feud 2’s invasive ads and pushiness to play. Overall, I’d say pass instead of play.