This review comes with a small caveat: you have to like the rock band Queen even a little bit to appreciate this game. Otherwise, read this review as a commentary on how a “band" iOS game should be made. And now that we are done with that, let’s talk about Queen: Play the Game ($2.99), a mobile game released yesterday out of the blue. I’m quite a Queen fan ever since forever; still, I approached this game to see both what it could offer Queen fans but also how it stands as a model for licensed band games. I’m happy to say that I enjoyed playing the game, and as long as content keeps on coming its way (as the developers said it will), Queen: Play the Game will stand as a great “gameficication" of everything Queen.
The game offers players three main gameplay options – puzzles, word search, and trivia – with the latter being the most prevalent and, frankly, the most fun. All three gameplay options are split into categories such as Songs, Song Lyrics, Tours, and Albums (with more available as IAP and even more coming soon), and also three levels of difficulty, the easy level for those who’ve heard a few Queen songs and the expert level for those who know Freddie’s real name and date of birth. The trivia parts have ten questions each, and once you get 75% correct, you unlock art and photos. The questions are quite entertaining, but I wish the ten you got each time were part of a larger collection of questions rather than getting the same ten each time. Not having a bigger variety of questions definitely hurts replaybility, but, as per the developers’ promises, replayability should stem from the additional content. At the end of the day, I can’t blame the developers for wanting to make this game viable through continuous IAP content rather than frontloading all of the content at once, especially considering the huge amount of content that a band like Queen offers. The puzzles are relatively basic but fun, and the word searches are more challenging than one would expect. All in all, the game offers plenty of gameplay options and variety to make a single playthrough a relatively long one.
However, you don’t play a game such as Queen primarily for the gameplay it offers but, mostly, for the audiovisual experience that the gameplay facilitates. The app design is nearly flawless and betrays plenty of thought and design iterations before it reached its current stage. The game has a Queen-like subtle flamboyancy in the design and UI, both of which really evoke Queen’s style (the band also had its outright super-flamboyant style, but that might be coming in later updates). The photos and art included in the game are top quality (although I would have liked the ability to zoom in more) and provide images and details of Queen’s history that will impress even hardcore Queen memorabilia collectors. Unlocking art and photos after beating each level and challenge makes for a rewarding game, if you enjoy rock history, of course. And if the visuals are great, the music is even better with Queen songs, both famous and not so famous, echoing with every single opportunity. If a question or a puzzle is even remotely related to a song, you’ll be hearing that song in great sound quality while you are trying to figure out which Lady is mentioned in Don‘t Stop Me Now.
As you’ve probably figured out by this review, Queen: Play the Game is an audiovisual and trivia treat that does a great job transforming a wealth of information about one of the greatest rock bands ever into a pretty entertaining game. The gameplay isn’t a rickety foundation swaying precariously under the weight of the audiovisual material, and the audiovisual material doesn’t get suffocated by the gameplay. This design philosophy and formula is definitely one that should be immitated by other bands and singers. So, as long as the content keeps on coming, and as long as you have even the slightest interest in Queen, you’ll enjoy this game quite a bit. The game’s a universal app that will set you back $2.99.
