As someone who’s occasionally watched Family Feud with his mum, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by Gameloft’s Family Feud Pocket. On the whole, it’s a smartly streamlined version of the best parts of the iconic game show, making it satisfying to pick up and play every day through Apple Arcade.
First off, it’s got a charming cartoon art style that also makes it easy to play across a variety of devices. That aesthetic also feeds into one of Pocket‘s most novel changes over the main Family Feud — gloriously outlandish outfits. After customizing the look of all five members of your family, you can adorn them will all kinds of colourful cosmetics, from snazzy suits and cowboy hats to even an alien mask and giant tuba. This sort of attire would feel rather jarring in any regular episode of the show, but it’s right at home in this already cartoon-ified mobile game. And because this is a microtransactions-free Apple Arcade title, you’ll unlock these naturally as you play, rather than have them locked behind any predatory in-app purchases.
But even with the quirky costumes, this is still recognizably Family Feud. As you boot up the game, you’ll hear a catchy guitar version of the series’ iconic theme, while an announcer will introduce none other than host Steve Harvey with his signature toothy grin and even a few lines voiced by him. And as a fun touch, Harvey’s iconic moustache has been added to a lot of the visual elements of the game, from the calendar icon denoting daily play objectives to the tickets they net you to unlock new customization options.
From there, you can play a mini version of classic Family Feud games, meaning you’ll be asked to guess what answers the highest number of people would give to a given question. I’ve always enjoyed this riff on classic trivia games because it’s not about what’s the correct answer, but rather, what many other people might think is the correct answer. As a result, I’ve really enjoyed having that experience in an easy-to-pick-up-and-play mobile game. And the Daily Feud mode, which gives you one new question with six possible answers per day, is the perfect way to distill the show into something you can regularly jump into for a few minutes.
For longer play sessions, you can tackle the other modes, my favourite of which is Survival. In this 10-round mode, you have to get enough points to progress. It can be surprisingly tricky at times, so it encourages you to actually play with a family member or two. Online, you can also play 1v1 Duels with randoms or friends, as well as Feud Together for 2v2 team matches.
I also tried out a few matches with my mum to see what she thought as someone who doesn’t play games but sometimes watches Family Feud. Overall, she said she liked it, especially the bite-sized structure for mobile. However, she did criticize the lack of an option to show the number one answer in some of the game modes, something which I’d echo since it’s always interesting to see. In the show, of course, Harvey would tell us this.
Another issue we noted was that the game didn’t always give us credit for similar answers as you’re supposed to get. For example, when asked about something that a kid might trip over in the home, we answered “carpet,” but we apparently got that wrong as we should have said “rug.” On that same question, we were dinged for “pet” when we were supposed to have said “dog.” But later on, we were asked about our favourite things to drink out of and said “cup” and still got the points even though the game had “bottle” as the correct answer. This inconsistency didn’t happen often, thankfully, but it was still frustrating when it did.
One final gripe I have is that you have a limited number of hints you can use, and more can be purchased using in-game currency as you play. In practice, this system gives you the first few letters of an answer. Given that this is an inherently group-focused game that encourages collaboration, having the game effectively spell out the answer for you is silly. I avoided using it when playing solo, but it feels cheap to have it still enabled during online multiplayer matches.
Overall, though, I’ve enjoyed Family Feud Pocket more than I was expecting. It’s a smart portable-friendly version of the iconic game show, especially without any predatory microtransactions to get in the way. I can definitely see myself picking up and playing this every once in a while.
Family Feud Pocket is now available exclusively on Apple Arcade, which costs $8.99/month.
Image credit: Gameloft
