Text or Die

Kids say
Based on 1 review
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Text or Die
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this app.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Text or Die is a free-to-play trivia/word game available for download on Android and iOS mobile devices. Players try to come up with the longest answer to various questions and categories. The gameplay is easy to learn, but often has an unusual selection of answers it deems acceptable or not. Players are able to do some basic customization to their avatars' appearances, though they are generally featureless characters. Despite appearances to the contrary, this game is a single player experience, as other tournament "contestants" are actually computer controlled opponents. There's some violence in the game, with contestants eliminated by falling into the water and being eaten by sharks. The game's filled with intrusive advertisements, though most can be removed by paying a one-time fee.
What’s It About?
In TEXT OR DIE, you've been entered into a once in a lifetime trivia tournament. Of course that's only because if you lose, you won't be around to try again. The stakes have never been higher as you compete to come up with the longest answer to a series of random trivia categories, ranging from natural disasters to Lord of the Rings characters. The length of your answer adds extra height to your platform and safely dry from the rising tides. Fall short, and you'll quickly find yourself swimming with the sharks. Well, at least until they decide to use you as a mid-afternoon snack.
Is It Any Good?
Who knew that having a robust vocabulary would be a life-saving skill? Still, that's the premise behind Text or Die. And it's a fairly interesting premise, challenging players to come up with the most long-winded responses to random trivia. Unfortunately, nearly every single bit of the delivery on the premise falls short of even the lowest expectations. For starters, while this might looks like a multiplayer game, it's not. All of your opponents are randomly generated by the computer and few every seem to present much challenge. In fact, the biggest challenge is coping with the game's very limited and often confusing selection of what it considers correct answers.
As a game where the goal is answering questions with the longest word, it's understandable that Text or Die requires the answer to be spelled correctly. But there are times where even correctly spelled words are considered wrong. And then there are the game's generically described categories, which are widely open to interpretation. Many of these seem more like they're left to the whim of the developers' preferences than actual answers. Oftentimes, you'll spell out a word that clearly fits in a category but is rejected, while the AI selects an answer that doesn't have even the most tenuous connection to the subject but somehow passes muster. Finally, the in-game ads are overwhelming. Between pop-ups, banners, etc. being shoved into your face at any given moment, even during a match, it starts to feel like the game is nothing more than what happens between the ads instead of the other way around.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about competitive games. Do you prefer to play games solo or to play competitively against other players? Would you want to know you're playing actual people versus opponents that are computer generated and controlled?
Are in-game advertisements effective in encouraging players to try out different products or services? When do in-game advertisements become too invasive?
App Details
- Devices: iPhone, iPad, Android
- Pricing structure: Free
- Release date: August 14, 2021
- Category: Trivia Games
- Topics: Sports and Martial Arts, Numbers and Letters, Ocean Creatures
- Publisher: Rollic Games
- Version: 12.4.1
- Minimum software requirements: Requires iOS 11.0 or higher; Android 7.0 and up
- Last updated: December 6, 2022
Our Editors Recommend
For kids who love vocabulary
Themes & Topics
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