With the popularity of the Heads Up app, it was exciting to see what Heads Up! Phones Down Edition had to offer; unfortunately, it was exactly what had come before.
With the popularity of Heads Up! the idea of a sequel heading to the shelves was never out of the question. Heads Up! Phones Down Edition appears to be a chance for this void to be filled with the promise of a new party game ready to shake up the scene. JackBox Party Packs have held the title of the kings of group party games for a long time.
And these entries to the genre seemed to hold the potential to take that throne. The popularity of the smartphone edition of the game meant that it made sense for a party version to be available. But it needed to offer something new, not just be the same game on a different-sized screen; that was the challenge Heads Up! Phones Down Edition faced.
The Ellen Show has been a staple of late-night TV for years, and the Heads Up section of the program has been around for as long as many can remember. The decision to create a game that more closely resembled the version played on the show, with a large screen behind one player allowing others to see the prompts they are guessing, would seem like a sound decision as long as it offered something new. Which is the point of a new release, to be something new, even if it is an adaptation.
Other adaptations face similar issues, needing to offer something new in order to be considered more than just a port to another console. An example of this down well is in the Resident Evil 4 VR Edition, which is rebuilt from the ground up and shows the love and care of the devs. Red Dead Redemption on the PlayStation 5, however, was simply a port, barely even updating graphics and still holding the $60 price tag of a new release. So it was vital that Heads Up! Phones Down Edition didn’t fall into the trap of being a port with an over-inflated price tag that left fans wondering how they should have spent their 40 bucks.
Heads Up! Phones Down Edition came with bags of potential. Having the PC screen that everyone can see could have left lots of varying game modes. A head-to-head round, the opportunity to make your own categories with personalised prompts, even something as simple as tracking the points each team has earned and keeping score for the players. A way to add to the original content could even have been an online mode to allow people to play with anyone around the world.
Anything that set this game apart from the mobile one would have been a fantastic addition. Yet, frustratingly, it appears that this game is just a port of the mobile version with an over-inflated price tag being all it has over the original.
The gameplay is simple, although that is the key to such a game. The players can pick a category from any of the packs available. Once the pack has been chosen, one player on the team is left with the job of guessing different prompts that the remainder of the players are describing to them without using the actual word or phrase seen on screen. This player will often stand in front of the monitor and face the rest of the party so they can’t look over at the prompts being flashed up behind them. The players can also choose to play the opposite way, with one person describing and everyone else guessing.
These are not two separate game modes; they are, however, just different ways a player can choose to interpret the gameplay before them. If you guess correctly, you hit the Enter key to mark the prompt as correct and the Space button to tell the game that the player has given up on this prompt and needs to skip to the next word or phrase. The settings automatically set a 60-second timer for each round that can be increased to 2 or 3 minutes in the settings. Alternatively, for a more frantic experience, the timer can be changed to a 30-second one, leaving far less time for error.
The button prompts to tell Heads Up! Phones Down Edition, if you are correct or choosing to skip, is clearly labelled at the beginning of each round in a clear and succinct way. This is very helpful as it means every player is reminded as they step up for their round, rather than any confusion taking place at the opening of each round while you get used to the controls.
Heads Up! Phones Down Edition also recommends using a controller rather than a keyboard. While some players will have a long enough keyboard cord, or even a wireless mouse, to select if they are correct or have passed effectively, it is good that such adaptations are available for those who would prefer to have a more mobile controller to tell the game if they have got an answer correct.
Despite the effective communication of the controls on the mouse, keyboard, or controller, the explanation of how to play the game itself is far from clear. It could be a matter of arrogance, and the developers assume the popularity of the mobile game to be high enough that most have played it, and those that haven’t may have seen the game crop up on The Ellen Show at some point or another. Or maybe the creators assumed that the concept is self-explanatory, or the simple diagram is effective enough in its explanation of the rules.
Whatever the case may be, the rules are simply not explained clearly enough. While this very review managed a brief explanation of how the game is intended to be played, Heads Up! Phones Down Edition seems to overcomplicate the matter in the way it explains. Each pack offers its own set of rules. While this is necessary for some, such as the accent pack that asks the player to do an impression rather than a description, it is just confusing that many are trying to communicate the same thing with different wording.
Heads Up! Phones Down Edition also demonstrates that the guesser should be the one to stand with their back to the screen in a simple animation as a pack is selected. These instructions contain no words, however, and do not even show that it is the guesser who is standing, leading to some assuming it is the one doing the descriptions that should be stood and, in my case, leading to some odd furniture rearranging to try to hide the TV from the rest of the group so they wouldn’t be tempted to peak.
Should the party playing this game choose to up the competition of the evening, then splitting the room into two and going against each other is a great way to add some tension to the game. While this is one of the most fun ways to experience Heads Up! Phones Down Edition, there is no option in the menu to have this as a game mode. This means that the game will not automatically keep track of how each team is doing, nor will it make sure prompts are unique for each team so the same description can be given again over the course of one night.
Heads Up! Phones Down Edition is very simple, although this works for the type of game it is. Anything too complicated can get in the way of the party atmosphere that is being generated by the game and has the potential to get in the way of the fun that is the main goal of any of the games in the party genre.
There is no story mode in Heads Up! Phones Down Edition instead, the player can pick from any of the available packs from launching the game. To the game’s credit, none of these are hidden behind a paywall or need to be unlocked. From the very beginning, this allows a player to play a large variety of packs, which is a perk to this version over the mobile game Heads Up!, which has some packs that can’t be accessed without buying them.
This instant variety is one of the few positives found in Heads Up! Phones Down Edition as the packs can offer a lot of categories, meaning there is one for most occasions. There are also some deep cuts in these packs, with categories that allow for niche topics. There are also ways to narrow down these categories to find exactly what you are looking for, whether that be a category on movies or one based on impressions of animals.
There are also ways to narrow down what types of modes you prefer. This includes a kid’s section filled with different shows, films, and other kids’ pop culture, as well as an adult one with more explicit topics if that is the mood of the evening. While the categories are narrowed down, making the specific pack you are looking for a little easier to find, it should be noted that there is no search function that would make finding a pack you are looking for a lot easier.
The tab of recently played packs allows players to find a pack they have played before more easily. This can make it a lot easier to simulate a head-to-head game as you can play a pack that the previous team just tried, but remember that you have to set this up yourself, as there are no additional game modes in Heads Up! Phones Down. Not having this streamlined into one easy game mode, along with having no way to find exactly what you may be looking for, only adds to the frustration many will feel playing this game.
While the variety of packs is great, the level of variety ends here with the prompts within the packs having a lot of repetition. While this would be fine if it only happened on the third or fourth time a pack is played, this is not the case in Heads Up! Phones Down Edition. Instead, on some of the two and three-minute rounds, there will be repetition in the same round, which is very frustrating as it decreases the challenge that is taking place.
The graphics in Heads Up! Phones Down Edition is not bad, although they are also not anything special, with the characters appearing in some of the stills being simple designs that lack a lot of personality, instead feeling very bland and generic. The small number of animations are also simple and lack flavour, existing to pass on information rather than to be a fun addition to the overall experience of the game. The design for each of the packs is one of the most visually interesting parts of the game, although it should be noted that many of these come straight from the mobile version.
The sound is, again, bordering on generic, as the smooth tunes in the background are simply there to fill the silence. A fun addition could have been to have sound effects for guessing or passing a prompt change depending on a pack. For example, the Horror Movie pack could have had a scream of terror if the player had to pass and a witch’s cackle should they get it correct.
Ultimately, Heads Up! Phones Down Edition had all the potential to be the next big thing in party games. The mobile version meant, going into the game, most knew roughly what they were getting. Unfortunately, they knew exactly what they were getting as this was just a port with a $40 price tag slapped on the front.
Even the name is a mistake, as Heads Up Phones Down is the tagline for a campaign in England encouraging young people not to look at their phones while crossing the road. This game offers no new game modes, not a drop of fresh creativity, and reeks of being an ill-thought-out cash grab from an app already sinking into obscurity.
