£1.49 on iOS, Android to follow.
Official app site
We were told it would never happen, but the true fans BELIEVED and here we are. And it’s highly addictive, if not quite polished.
You get the choice of single player or multiplayer. The single player is a bit disappointing to be honest, three sets of those pick-from-a-board rounds the show dropped years ago, and if you beat the computer opponent each time you win a Pointless Trophy and get a shot at the jackpot, played in the classic pre-2014 style. This bit at least apes the show quite well.
However multiplayer is where it’s at and it’s been thoughtfully structured. You can connect to Facebook or use someone’s e-mail address (or indeed play someone at random). These questions are all based on the head-to-head round – anagrams, clues to facts, missing words and so on. There are four questions on each board, you pick one, they pick one from the remaining three, then on the second board they go first then you. Lowest combined score wins the point, first to two points wins, but ingeniously the deciding round is a classic open ended Pointless question you each get two shots at. All bases get covered. I spent literally hours playing with Facebook chums last night in a way that wasn’t conducive to getting anything constructive done.
You can also cheat by buying pointers for multiplayer with real money – one shows you what the highest answer is, one shows you what the lowest answer is and reveals every other letter in that answer which makes it too easy. You get twenty of each with the app. It is an interesting business strategy to charge money to make a game way less fun, but the option’s there if you want it. Having tried one out to see how they work, we very much do not. The option to do this is fairly well hidden in plain sight though, if you dive right in without the practice game you might not know they’re there at all.
It’s all wrapped up with a graphical package reminiscent of the show, and led by hilarious cartoon versions of Xander and Richard (if you take a while to think of an answer then they’ll charmingly wander on screen). It’s got the tower, it’s got the music (yes, you’ll get to hear that bloody bontempi keyboard bit in the background every few seconds like they do in foreign versions).
But it’s not perfect. In fact despite a soft launch in Australia at the end of last year it still seems quite buggy – one of the reasons I stopped playing last night was because it stopped letting me send answers and then decided I wasn’t connected to the internet, which I’m going to assume is a server capacity issue which should probably die down after the initial spike. On the one hand – aggravating, on the other handy because it forced me to put the bloody thing down. If I’m last to play I don’t get why I have to wait for my opponent to have their go on the next round before I can see the answers to the round I’ve just finished.
What it accepts as correct answers seems to vary on a whim – it correctly identified “Freddie Flintoff” for “Andrew Flintoff”, but wouldn’t accept “America” for “USA”. Some spelling mistakes it allows but others it does not and occasionally it makes it quite frustrating. When it lists possible answers on the open ended questions I don’t know if it’s exhaustive or not – yesterday a question came up on Indiana Jones actors and I couldn’t find Harrison Ford or Sean Connery on the list. Some of the points don’t seem quite believeable – I’m led to believe that of 100 people not one identified OU (Milton Keynes) to be the Open University. Where have they found these people?
Presentation wise the music loops have clear jarring jumps and the Pointless Final tower doesn’t go down in a tension-fuelled slow way like it does on TV. These are fairly minor points in the grand scheme of things, but when The Chase app gets the feel bang on on its first attempt then it’s a shame this comes across as a bit sloppy in comparison.
Don’t let these things put you off though – if you’ve got willing friends then this comes highly recommended.
