Giftiz – an app that rewards you for Discovering & Playing Android games
by Paul Wilks
Oct 8, 2012 11:06 AM –
Install
Giftiz is an app that lets you discover and play new games while earning the chance to win cool prizes. It’s quite easy to use the app too. Just browse through the partner games, download and play one so that you achieve enough to accumulate XP in Giftiz then, when you reach a certain level you try to win various prizes. If you like playing games anyway, why not try it out?
Price: Free
Tested on: HTC One X
Content Rating: Medium Maturity
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Great prizes on offer!
- Easy to use app and find games to download and play!
- If you’re playing the games anyway, it makes sense to make it worth while!
Cons
- Not many games to choose from.
- Requires a lot of play to achieve even the lowest levels of XP.
- No guarantees- you just have to play a lot to stand a chance of winning.
Features:
Giftiz really does two things. Firstly it introduces you to new games. Secondly, if you play those games a lot, you can ultimately win XP in Giftiz which accumulate and increases your levels and ability to win prizes. The prizes themselves would appear to be pretty good too, from Amazon gift cards to a Samsung Galaxy S3 and a MacBook Pro.
Firstly, you just have to register, which is pretty easy. Then you can select a mission from one of those listed. The missions require you to download a game (think the way TapJoy has you discovering and downloading new apps and games for rewards) and play it to a certain level in order to earn Giftiz XP. For example, if you download Urban Rivals and reach level 7 you will earn 570 XP. The more XP you earn the higher your in-app level. The higher your level, the better the prize you can win.
I guess the point is, if you love playing games on your Android anyway, you may as well play them through Giftiz and you never know, you might win! I did think the missions each took quite a lot of gameplay so don’t expect to collect XP quickly. Subsequently as a reviewer, it is not as if I have been able to test the entire system as it would require many hours of playtime even to get on the lowest rung of the prize ladder.
My advice would subsequently be to play the games because you like playing games, not just because you want to win something. Giftiz is a nice idea and it introduces some quite good games to play, but the sheer amount of gameplay required with no guarantee of winning anything means you’re going to be disappointed if you automatically think hard work will win you a Macbook.
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Giftiz – Basic premise
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Giftiz – Menu, gifts or missions
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Giftiz – Choose an app to try
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Giftiz – Collect XP
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Giftiz – Spin that wheel
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Giftiz – Spinning wheel
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Giftiz – Spend 1 Giftiz each time you spin the wheel
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Giftiz – Win XP
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Giftiz – Win gifts
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Giftiz – Unlock stuff
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Giftiz – Play downloaded game
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Giftiz – Achieve score in downloaded game
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Giftiz – Settings
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Giftiz – About
Usefulness:
While I think some of the levels will seem practically unobtainable, if you like playing games it does no harm to play them through Giftiz as you never know how well you might do. You might get addicted to a title and before you know it you’ve won some XP and stand the chance winning something cool.
Ease of Use:
Like a Tapjoy interface (some freemium games include this system where you can download other games and apps to accumulate in-app coins or what-not) just choose a game, download it and then complete one of the directed missions. Thankfully there are some pretty good games too so it’s worth a look.
Frequently Used:
This is a toughie as there are probably plenty of people playing games through this all the time thinking they are going to win a top prize. However, the level of attainment you need to reach to even begin to stand a chance of doing so is very high and would require serious hours of gaming and skill. That said, if you love games it does no harm to try.
Interface:
The interface is s little glitzy and it feels a little bit like a gambling app which, in a way it is. It is, however, well designed and responsive.