Family Feud Review

A warning at the beginning of Family Feud may be a crushing disappointment to some: This app does not dispense real money if you win. This is an important point. Don’t go on a spending spree with the expectation that the makers of this game show app will send you a real check in the mail.

Even if the $20,000 grand prize for outsmarting another family is just a fiction, it’s a fun one. In Family Feud for the iPhone, a very close approximation of the long-running TV show, you have to answer surveys with the most common answers. If you screw up, your opponent has a chance to steal away your points, and in the Fast Money bonus round you’ll have to answer five questions in rapid succession.

Family Feud has a very fun concept at its heart, and this app makes it easy to answer the surveys. You start by typing your response on the in-game keyboard, and a few suggestions will pop up. To save time, you can click on your response as it appears. The game is also smart enough to accept some slightly different answers, like substituting “dog” for “pet” in our survey question, “What do you not want to run over with a vacuum cleaner?”

You can also customize your own character in this game, but your family members are created by the computer. As you play through the game, 12 different families will try to challenge you, and they become progressively smarter as you advance. You'll also earn new clothing for your avatar after each successful episode.

While Family Feud offers a pretty good amount and variety of questions, it still seems lacking in terms of multiplayer or online features. The pass-and-play multiplayer is acceptable if you don’t mind buzzing in on the same iPhone screen as your opponent, but local or online multiplayer would be a great addition.

Also, a few years ago a cellphone version of Family Feud by Glu Mobile contained survey questions that you could answer from an option in the main menu. Then, completed surveys would be incorporated into the in-game questions. This iPhone version of Family Feud contains no such innovations, and once you run out of questions, you’re out of luck until the developers decide to update the game with more.

More modes and customization are important for this game show app to reach Must Have status, but it still stands as a very solid and entertaining game. Family Feud is worth a buy, but you don’t need to step over your own mother to get it.