Xac USA:Pop Culture Trivia Review – A very solid quiz game

Our rating:

By: XacFAQ

Version #: 1.2.1

Date Released: 2014-06-18

Developer: XacFAQ

Price: 0

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Quiz games quality is very varied. They can range from strange questions no-one knows and make you feel dumb, to quizzes my 10 year old nephew could solve blindfolded. Xac:USA Pop Culture Trivia (from now on, Xac:USA) is neither of these: the questions are varied from very easy to very hard, so you can feel 50% smart and 50% dumb.

Xac:USA positions itself, as the name implies, as a USA-centric trivia app (the developers also have a UK trivia app, be sure to check it out!). So I was a little wary about the questions I may get, since I’m not from the US and my main source of news is Twitter. So, I opened it, expecting the worse (for me), questions about news I never heard of, actors or actresses I didn’t care about and music idols I’d rather see bartendering. But I was gladly surprised. See one of the first questions I got in the Current Events category:

Since I’m from Catalonia (Spain) I was gladly surprised, seeing a question that was actually very time sensitive, world-wide and relevant. Also, loved the pun. With the answer. The trend kept with all the categories I checked (so far I have played extensively in the Soccer, Current Events, Technology, Music and Pets.) The questions had a US-centric slant, but the variety was good enough for a player from anywhere in the world. So, to put it succinctly, the questions are very well crafted. They are the kind of trivia you’d be asked by a fellow fan. Who won the Soccer World Cup in 1986? is the kind of question most (even mild) soccer fans might be able to answer (hand of who?), but to know Which teams played in the 1966 World Cup final? you definitely have to be a real fan of soccer. Or you should know  if you deem yourself a know-it-all.

When you download Xac:USA, “only” 7 categories are available. These are Current Events, Music, Pets, TV Shows, Music, Celebs and US Civics #1. As you play, and answer correctly you are awarded stamps and medals. With stamps you can unlock new topics (this is how I unlocked the Soccer and Technology sections.) You could also unlock them directly for 0.99 USD (1.79 once you get to second topics) each, but playing to unlock them is way more fun. Of course, paying is also a way to help the developer with the work of updating the game. So, purchasing a few is like saying a big “thanks!” to them.

As you play each category, new topics in the same category open, so you go from Technology #1 to Technology #2, for instance. There’s a quite large array of categories to unlock, too: Literature, Food & Drinks, Sports, Best of 2013 (Looking back at least year’s stuff), Road Trip (fun questions about the 50 states in the US,) Transport and Movies. How’s that for a quiz session? Or for 200! In addition to this, questions are updated more or less daily (the app quickly downloads new questions when you open it) and special events (like Soccer for the ongoing World Cup, or Father’s/Mother’s Day specials) are added regularly.

Each quiz is formed of 5 questions. You have as much time as you want to read the question, but the answer time is limited. As time runs out, points also run out. To add interactivity, there are power-ups to increase your score or help you with a question: you can get 2x points, or show popularity of answers to pick the most likely (handy when asked about american football or baseball.) Or take away, which will remove a wrong answer when shown the options. As for specific gameplay options, you can play solo (which is what I choose) or play online against a random player (which can grant you extra stamps to unlock categories.) As for Facebook/Google integration, nothing. And this is great! I don’t like sharing my real name/data to unknown servers/people. So, being able to play completely anonymously is a great, great option from the developers. Thanks! But if you want to play with a real friend, you are given a random username that you can pass him/her and you can both enjoy the game together (each on their own device, sure!) Maybe a 2 (or more)-players-in-one-device would also be a cool option. I hope they add it in a future update, we’ll keep you updated about it!