Game Reviews

SongPop

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SongPop
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Back before iPods had touchscreens or colour displays, the game selection was fairly limited.

One game from the iPod click wheel age that many Apple faithful will remember was Music Quiz, a simple stock diversion in which your iPod would play a snippet of a song loaded into your library and ask you to identify the title or the artist.

SongPop attempts to recapture the simple song-based gameplay of Music Quiz, but it changes the focus of the quiz from 'songs that you already own' to 'songs that SongPop's developers would like you to own.'

Somewhat noteworthy

In SongPop, you're asked to identify a song title or artist based on an excerpt played from your iOS device of choice. In a given round, you need to identify five such tunes, and you earn points based on how quickly you (correctly) answer.

You may select the genre from the admittedly impressive list of playlist offerings (Industrial, Movie Soundtracks, TV Themes, Christian, Disco, Ska, etc.), but the game determines how many songs it will shuffle through based on your proven familiarity with a playlist.

All playlist familiarities start at zero out of five stars. After a particularly noteworthy guessing round, your Playlist Mastery (stars) will increase.

As it does, you unlock new songs for the game to mix into the guessing portion of a given genre. This creates a rather tidy learning curve, keeping the game challenging for serious music fans while taking the edge off for less experienced players

Unfortunately, this is SongPop's only real redeeming gameplay feature. With no single-player mode to speak of, it's a good thing that developer FreshPlanet tried to work in a way to handicap stronger players.

Name that tune… then buy it

After a few minutes of playing SongPop, FreshPlanet starts asking for cash.

At the completion of every round, you're given the option (and a link) to buy any song heard in the round on iTunes. If your opponent is dragging his feet you'll be staring at this list of songs for quite a long time.

You can also purchase playlists with in-game coins, but only in astronomical numbers. You earn a modest number of these coins with every round you win, and so purchasing a playlist without resorting to IAPs will require quite a bit of playing time.

This tactic might be understandable for the freemium version of the game (after all, developers need to earn a living), but after paying $1.99/£1.49 for the premium version of SongPop you may feel aggrieved at having to spend yet more to really enjoy it.

In the end, SongPop delivers a fun premise but lacks a bit in the execution. The idea behind the game is an interesting one, but its unpardonable reliance on in-app purchases makes it difficult to get really enjoy the game without a substantial investment of time, money, or both.

SongPop

A fun, addictive concept ultimately bogged down by intrusive IAPs and a cumbersome interface
Score
Matthew Diener
Matthew Diener
Representing the former colonies, Matt keeps the Pocket Gamer news feed updated when sleepy Europeans are sleeping. As a frustrated journalist, diehard gamer and recovering MMO addict, this is pretty much his dream job.