Game Review: The Survey Says Facebook Family Feud Is A Winner
Family Feud is one of those long running television shows that taps deep into the desire to know what ‘people think’ and wield it to defeat your relatives, and the new Family Feud social game for Facebook does a great job of staying true to these principles. The game has over 1 million monthly active users and is continuing to grow at a fast pace, as several of the gameplay elements within the game focus on sharing and playing with friends. Read our review after the jump.
- Title: Family Feud on Facebook
- Genre: Game Show
- Game Developer: iWin
- Game Publisher: Fremantle Media
- Released: 2010
Summary:
Family Feud is a balanced game that brings the fun of guessing people’s public opinion to Facebook. There are a few interesting social features and a fun, quick interface, and overall the game is definitely a good 5 minute break.
Pros:
Clean interface. Great questions and fun gameplay. Exciting fast money bonus round. Lots of room to improve status and gain achievements.
Cons:
Only a few social features. Would like to get access to more episodes more often.
Full Review:
Gameplay:
Family Feud consists of ‘episodes’, where you play 5 rounds and possibly a bonus ‘fast money’ round. For each regular round, you’re asked a question that was presented to a survey audience of 100 people. You have to guess what the survey audience responded for the question. For instance, I was asked “What do people move out of the city for?”, and I wrote in the answer ‘traffic’, and it was revealed that 40 people had said that same answer. I, therefore, get 40 points. The game is over when you get three strikes.
The fast money round asks you five quick questions, and you only get the chance to say one answer to each. It then totals up your results and multiplies it by a bonus multiplier for your fast money bonus. You only get this round if you do well during the regular rounds. There are also bonus multipliers during the regular rounds.
Players have to wait to get new episodes, or have the opportunity to buy them for about $1 per episode. I don’t mind waiting, personally. Some other features that make the gameplay great are the achievements you can get for answering certain surveys, and the titles that are associated with sets of achievements. There’s also a great “my surveys” mode and a competitive leaderboard.
Presentation:
Family Feud does great with its overall visual presentation, using a lot of Facebook game standards including a top bar and help buttons on the bottom, but the main attraction is the Flash based game area. The entire game has a great sheen and clean interface, and it’s very easy to click in for your game and start the action. As the game starts, you will no doubt recognize the interface as being identical to the show, and it even includes the big “STRIKE” when you answer incorrectly.
That leads us into the sound, which is also excellent. There is an announcer who does all the catch lines from the show, specifically saying “Survey Sayyyys” most times you guess an answer. The commenter also makes occasional remarks about your play, and whether the answer was good or not. It really adds to the feeling of the game.
Lasting Appeal:
Family Feud is a game that has been popular in American culture for years, since 1976 in fact, and has endured the shakeup of the game show industry several times over. The basic element of its gameplay is to show that you know people well, and what better place to show that off than on Facebook. The game gives you a final score after every game and places you on a leaderboard for your overall cumulative score, and as you play, you can move up your leaderboard and beat your friends in overall points scored. The fact that it’s cumulative means that people who buy episodes have an unfair advantage, and that takes a little bit of the fair competition out of it, but overall it’s still fun.
The achievements system in the game is cool and expansive. There are 8 stages that you can reach, and to increase in levels you have to score a certain amount of points on a specific question within the game. The fact that there are 8 stages, each with 8 collections, each with 8 achievements per collection means that there is a lot of gameplay packed in to this game. If you’re serious about getting cool titles and achievements to show off your prowess, Family Feud has what you need.
Sociability:
The game has some great social elements, but overall lacks a bit of the group dynamic that makes the original television show so popular. There is no group or family that represents one side of the competition, and you’re pretty much playing against every other player that played, because after each match you’re shown your score vs. the average score for the question. That said, some of the best elements are the fast money game, which you can post to your wall and have people play against your score. You also get bonus points as they complete the fast money game for you.
The other main social element is the “survey about me” area, where you create a question, post it on your page, and people answer it. It’s not as much a game as just a cool way to interact with people and have them tell you things about yourself, but if that’s what you’re after, check it out!
