Hanging With Friends – Uber Popular Twist on Hangman, Play with Friends Around the World
by Paul Wilks
Oct 6, 2011 11:05 AM –
Install
Hanging With Friends is the new Android game from Zynga… the developer that brought us the likes of Words With Friends and Zynga Poker. You might not have heard of it, but they also created a little Facebook game called Farmville. Whether you hate them due to unprecedented requests and invites spamming your Facebook wall, or this review has thus far simply reminded you that you need to harvest some raspberries, Zynga’s ability to make popular games is without question. Hanging With Friends is a spin on the pencil and paper game ‘Hangman’, and lets you compete against a worldwide community of players. With rich graphics and challenging gameplay, it has already been downloaded heavily by many users on the Android Market… the question is… should you?
Price: Free
Tested on: HTC Desire HD
Content Rating: Everyone
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Lots of players worldwide!
- Gorgeous graphics!
- Simple gameplay with good sound!
- In-game chat messaging!
- Plus Lifelines!
Cons
- Similar to Words With Friends, the game has super-intrusive advertising after every turn.
Features:
I think most of us have played hangman haven’t we? That game you play in the back of the car as a kid or a pre-Nintendo wet-weather activity, Hangman is a word guessing game where one player chooses a word and, letter by letter, their opponent guesses the content of the word. Canny early use of popular letters: E, A, S, T, D, N, etc. usually mark the experienced players from the novices. With each incorrect letter a diagram is gradually drawn which creates a hangman’s gallows and then a man- if the picture is completed before the word is guessed correctly the opponent loses. The same principal has found its way into popular culture with gameshows like Wheel of Fortune.
Hanging With Friends makes this concept more family friendly by essentially presenting your character as ‘hanging’ as s/he holds on to a number of balloons. Hanging precariously over some molten lava, if you lose a round you lose a balloon and drop ever closer to a fiery wet death. You play either against a random world player, one of your Facebook or Twitter friends or even have a pass-and-play game with someone nearby. Turns are taken to guess a word from a full alphabet, and then create a word for your opponent to guess. Fiendishly simple, it’s easy to get into and becomes quite addictive.
Because you can play against any number of random opponents in the world, you’re rarely without a game if you want one. When it’s your turn the game also gives you a small notification. While this is great, it will also send you a notification sometimes to tell you that it’s your opponents turn. Now, if they are relevant, notifications are fine but I didn’t appreciate getting notices when it wasn’t my turn! 
You can turn all notifications off you want to though.
There is a useful help section if you are unfamiliar with the game and the UI is incredibly polished and well developed, there are few games with this level of smoothness and rich menus, but then it is Zynga after all. The game allows you to pick your own avatar, which is quite cool although there’s not many to choose from. There is also a ‘Coming Soon’ shop feature and the game rewards you with coins occasionally so hopefully the shop will be something worthwhile.
Words With Friends was a scrabble clone, which is great for the Android platform, but I found the game full of flaws and issues including force closures and regular freezing. I was glad therefore to see that Hanging With Friends doesn’t suffer from these problems. There are occasional delays in the transitions to the game screen but nothing that bothers you too much, it is a real-time gaming after all. One thing the game shares with Words With Friends, however, is the horrific and intrusive advertising. Whenever you take a turn you are given a full-page advert that you have to wait about 5 seconds to pass. Just ugly. 
I’m not the biggest fan of Zynga is general but they do make gorgeous apps and they mostly work very well indeed. Hanging With Friends is a great game, lots of fun, challenging and addictive. Gameplay is intuitive and easy to understand. Markedly superior to Words With Friends, Hanging With Friends is their best word game and is deservedly popular.
Watch on Mobile
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Hanging with Friends – In-game view
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Hanging with Friends – In-game view 2
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Hanging with Friends – in-game view 3
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Hanging with Friends – In-game view 4
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Hanging with Friends – Chat feature
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Hanging with Friends – Previous words are displayed at the top
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Hanging with Friends – Lifelines
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Hanging with Friends – Lose balloons and you lose altitude
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Hanging with Friends – Winner/Loser screen
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Hanging with Friends – Resign if you want to
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Hanging with Friends – Log in with Facebook and Twitter to find friends.
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Hanging with Friends – Instructions
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Hanging with Friends – Instructions 2
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Hanging with Friends – Help and support
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Hanging with Friends – Coin store coming soon!
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Hanging with Friends – Choose character
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Hanging with Friends – Options
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Hanging with Friends – Settings
Fun Factor:
A tight fist of balloons and your ability to guess a word are the only things stopping you from falling into molten lava? Yes it’s fun! Everything about the game is bright, cheerful and enjoyable. After a while the simplicity of the game might become a bit monotonous, but I would guess Zynga might try its hardest to entice you with accumulations of some kind when they open their in-game shop feature.
Addictive:
The game presents a nice challenge and encourages you back for more, reminding you of your turn with notifications. There’s a real sense of triumph when you win and it’s cool to be able to play against potentially anyone in the world. While not at Angry Birds levels of addiction, its great game nonetheless and will keep you interested and playing for while.
Graphics:
The visuals are of high quality and deliriously pretty. The characters are cuter than cute and every feature is primary colored, polished and syrupy. Screen transitions and menus are equally smooth in the most part.
Accelerometer, Vibration & Sound:
The sound is a little on the twee side, but it suits the game and really fits in with the game play. Its not mind-blowing in anyway but is perfect for the game and full of effects and appropriate detail.
Tags:
Android App,
Android Game,
AndroidTapp.com App Review,
Hanging with Friends,
Hangman,
Word Games,
Words With Friends,
Zynga,
Zynga Poker
Categorised in: Brain & Puzzle
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