Parents' Guide to Sporcle Party

While this online trivia contest is fun, and safe for all ages, the questions are clearly aimed at teenagers and older players. In Sporcle Party, you take on your friends in an 11-round trivia showdown. But unlike other online trivia games, you have to invite people to play, because you can't play against strangers. More importantly, the questions aren't multiple choice, and you have to type in your answers. Thankfully, it's very forgiving where spelling is concerned. Players also, in the first ten rounds, have to choose how many points to wager, (between 1-10 points) but can only pick an amount once per game. Then, in the final rounds, players vote if they want a question that is easy, medium, or hard, and individually decide if they want to wager 0, 10, or 20 points. You also have 45 seconds to answer, though it doesn’t matter how fast you are, so long as you beat the clock.

While all of this makes for a fun and unique online trivia contest, it also makes this decidedly more for older players. The built-in questions include ones about geography, sports, and movies -- with addition ones about music, Star Wars, and more available for purchase -- but the questions can really strain your brain if you're not a trivia buff or factoid fan. This also has a ton of static ads throughout, including when you're playing and in the menus, though there is an ad-free option you can purchase (surprise, surprise). But while having this be multiple choice, and adding categories for kids would broaden its appeal, as is, Sporcle Party's approach -- especially its strategic betting aspect -- makes this trivia contest a fun brain test.