Countdown - Official TV Show App

Price at time of writing 59p approx 99c

It's received very mixed reviews from superb to grim but I don't really know why.

This is actually a very good recreation of the Channel 4 TV programme.

All the usual rounds are available - The word game, the numbers game and the Countdown Conundrum and the official theme tune sounds great.

The word game works fine and you get the customary 30 seconds to work out your longest word from your chosen vowels and consonants.

The numbers game initially takes a bit of getting used to. But when you understand how to pick numbers and 'carry forward' it is an excellent recreation of this part of the show.

The 9 letter conundrum will test you just as the show does and don't think you can buzz in and take all the time you need because you can't. Once you buzz in you are on a timer to type the word in very quickly.

However the developers could have done just a little more to make this into a classic 10/10 app.

Two Player is available - Pass and Play or Bluetooth. This is fine but it would have been nice to have a more global interactive game.

As for the single game there is the choice of short game or whole game. Short game is 1 letters round, 1 numbers round and a conundrum.

Whole game, I feel, should mean all rounds as featured in the TV show but it is still short giving just 2 rounds of letters and 2 rounds of numbers and then a conundrum. This seems a silly oversight.

Local high scores only - no global option

No Openfeint or Game Center functionality.

All in all Countdown is still a great purchase especially at the low price stated above and it is still an app I return to occasionally for a quick challenge.

I just look forward to some updates to this eventually and if that ever happens  I will revisit this, still great, score.

8/10 Download here

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