If you love playing the game Hangman then Hanging With Friends is a game you should try. Brought to you by Zynga, the creators of Words With Friends, the game adds a great, fun twist to an old classic.
Forget the grim stickman hanging from a noose; instead we have cute looking characters hanging from colorful balloons. Challenge your friends to a game and see if you can pop all their balloons to win.
Starting a game is easy. If you have played Words With Friends before it works in exactly the same way. You can find a friend via their username or you can choose to play a random player. There is also the option to pass and play, choose a friend from your contact list or find a player through Facebook Connect.
When you start the game you create a word for your opponent to solve. There are twelve random letters to choose from and you can make a word up to eight letters long. Simply tap them and put them into place on the tray above. At some point along the tray is a double points or triple points square. If you manage to create a word which lands on that square you earn extra points accordingly.
Once a word has been created, the opposing player then gets to try to solve it. The tray will show the blank squares and the alphabet below. To start guessing the word, just tap the letters you think are in that word. You do have only so many chances though, since every incorrect letter results in a strike. If it is a smaller word then you have more chances at guessing as obviously it is a little harder. For an eight letter word you have less strikes available, so use them wisely. If you need a helping hand, there are life lines you can use depending on the points you have earned.
The points you earn are bonus points. Every time you reach 200 points you earn 20 coins. The coins help you buy life lines should you struggle to solve a word. There are three life lines. Suspects reveals four letters that could be in the word, Extinguish removes four letters that are not in the word and finally Revive removes one strike for you.
After a player tries solving the word, they then create one for their opponent. You keep doing this until one of you wins. To win you have to keep hanging with your balloons. You have five to start with and every time you get an incorrect word a balloon is popped!
What’s Macgasmic?
The animation is rather cute. At the start, you get to choose an avatar from some fun-looking choices. When you play the game, depending how well you are actually doing, the character pulls faces accordingly. If you guess the letter, they give a cheesy grin, and if you don’t, they frown and pull funny sad faces. A great little feature to add to the game and sure to entertain you a little.
You can play up to 20 players simultaneously so you can always be playing a game. Another great feature is after your opponent takes their turn, you can watch a replay of them trying to solve the word you sent them. This can be quite amusing at times when you see them struggling! There is also a built-in chat section to taunt your opponent. Like with Words With Friends, there are Push Notifications telling you when it is your turn to play, which is great to ensure you never forget to take your turn.
What’s Not?
The app is really good at feeding the games through to you, with the Push Notifications popping up almost instantly. The one thing I did notice, though, is if you come out of the app to take a call or use another app, it doesn’t save your place. This got quite frustrating at times when you were in middle of creating a word or half way through guessing one.
Conclusion
Hanging With Friends is a great, addictive word game, with a little extra fun added with the visual animation. It is a game that you can pick up and play at any time and one you will not want to put down. If you are still not sure about it, there is a free version to try first.
