THE GAME OF LIFE™ for iPad app review: an old family favorite

THE GAME OF LIFE™ for iPad

Price: $4.99

About the App

THE GAME OF LIFE™ for iPad by Electronic Arts is a digital version of the classic board game. The Game of Life, bringing all of the fun and excitement of the family favorite to your iPad. It was updated to version 1.0.29 on March 15, 2011.

This app is available in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

 

User Experience

With Party Play, this game enables up to six people to play at once, making it ideal for parties and gatherings. Alternatively, you can go it alone and play against virtual opponents.

The navigation on this app is great, enabling you to pan the camera around and zoom in and out of the board to get a great view of the action as it happens. Furthermore, you can track your life events in the Game of Life Journal, and even customize your very own character.

Features

This game takes full of advantage of the iPad display, enabling you to make foot prints in the snow or ring the doorbell, and everything is presented in fantastic high-resolution graphics, making it just like having a full board game in your hands.

Update Info

THE GAME OF LIFE™ for iPad is currently running on Version 1.0.29. The latest update included Fast App Switching, enabling you to get in and out of games faster than before. The update also included various corrections to text in the Menu and Help sections.

Customer Ratings and Feedback Comments

The app currently has 1270 customer ratings with an average rating of 3.5 out of five stars. One considerable complaint is that there is no strategy involved as there would be with the board game because some aspects of the game are played automatically and players are basically left to see what the algorithms produce.

Personal Comments by Reviewer

When it comes to iOS ports of classic board games, nothing is ever going to beat the real thing.
I’ve often found with a game like this that if you play it for long enough, you will start to notice predictable patterns in the way the game behaves. This seems to be somewhat the case with THE GAME OF LIFE™ for iPad but my advice would be give it a shot and see what you think.

I love the fact that up to six people can play at once and I think it’s well worth the purchase for that feature alone. Beyond that, the visual and audio aspects of the game are great and make a fair replacement for the board game.

The Journal is also a nice touch as it shows your progress through the game so you can see your character develop once your game is over.

Pros
• Up to six people can play at once.
• Players can customize their own characters.
• Good graphics allowing for a great view of the board.

Cons
• Not as popular as the original board game.
• The replay value of this game seems to be somewhat limited due to the fact that game play can become quite predictable over time.

For: iPad with iOS 3.2 or later.