QRANK Review

QRANK reminds me of ngmoco's Touch Pets: Dogs in one way: while the game is good, you simply can't get enough of it. QRANK, however, is an honest-to-goodness free social quiz game, not a freemium pet sim. Given that, it's a lot easier to resign yourself to logging on every day to get your QRANK fix. Trust me—soon enough, this quiz game will lure you in.

When you first log into QRANK, the game requires you to create an account. I was annoyed by how much info it asked for (hometown, really?) but there's nothing to stop you from inputting fake data. Once that's set up, you're ready to roll.

Each day brings 20 new questions, divided into categories of 100, 200, and 500 points. The trick is that you can only answer 15 questions per day, so you have to consider your own knowledge and likelihood of scoring when picking questions. The questions span four subjects per day, which are chosen from the categories of Entertainment, Life, Literature, History & Places, Science & Nature, Sports, and Business & Government. Many are ripped straight from the day's headlines—from recent deaths to the French president's wife talking about keeping a senior head of state waiting while her and her husband had sex. (Yeah, did you miss that?) They range from easy to hard, as you'd expect, but most of all, they're fun. Bonus points are awarded for snappy answers.

The game is further spiced up by double and triple point bonuses hidden on the board and power-ups that do things like eliminate wrong answers or reveal a question's category before you pick it. However, the best part is undoubtedly the integration with your network of friends. Getting your daily fix whilst competing with your friends' scores is great, especially while knowing that they tackled an identical game board. High score lists are also compiled based on worldwide, national, and local players.

QRANK is a great app. It's reminiscent of Jeopardy, but the question are accessible and always fresh, and the social element makes it even better. Of course, I wish that you could play more than one game per day. But QRANK is free, so it's a small price to pay—and besides, the limited play time should just make your addiction that much more intense.