The Weekly Ringer

The University of Mary Washington Student Newspaper

New App Challenges Players to ‘Draw Something’ on Their Smartphone

2 min read

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Have you ever wanted to just doodle on your smartphone or iPod? If so then “Draw Something” may be the perfect app for you.

One of the most popular new apps, “Draw Something” has been downloaded over 20 million times since it was released on Feb. 6, 2012, according to mobile app blog Appolicious, selling faster than the popular apps “Angry Birds” and “Instagram” did upon their release.

The premise of “Draw Something” is simple. You find an opponent by connecting through Facebook or email, which lets you see and challenge all of your friends who are registered with the game. You can also choose to play random opponents. You then are given a choice of three words of progressive difficulty and pick one to draw. Your opponent will guess what you drew and if they are right you start a streak and earn coins. They then get to draw and guess their word and the game goes back and forth in that way. “Draw Something” is like a digital version of “Pictionary.”

When playing the free ad supported version, you are only given five colors to draw with: black, red, blue, yellow and white, if you count in the eraser tool, and a library of 400 words from which your drawing prompts are picked.

Although this is nice, if you start playing serious matches with your friends you will start seeing repeated words fast. The limited color library is also problematic, some words, like “peas,” thought of traditionally as being green in color are hard to show which such a limited selection.

This can be remedied with the purchase of the game, a bargain at $0.99, which not only increases your word library to include a grand total of 2,000 possible words but also includes 400 coins which you can use to buy additional color packs to add. The “Mardi Gras” color pack is one of the best to get. It includes orange, green, purple, brown and gray, which along with the freely included colors, is perfect to draw almost any word you are given.

The only real issue with the game is the inability to “pass and play” the game. If you want to play with a friend or family member, they need to have a copy of the game on a compatible device and be connected to the Internet.

This means that if you are trying to pass time on a long road trip and do not have two Internet connected smartphones, you will not be able to play it with your friend sitting beside you.

If you are looking for some cheap fun and like to draw, “Draw Something” is the perfect game for you. Word to the wise, your hardest opponents may be your best friends, so choose who you play against carefully.