Take on the world with trivia

When I’m out with friends, I sometimes challenge them with a few trivia questions for fun. But plenty of trivia quiz smartphone apps can do a much better job than I do.

Trivia Crack is probably the hottest trivia quiz app and for good reason: It’s fun and satisfying to play and keeps you coming back to play more.

Think of the game as equivalent to the kind of general-knowledge-based quiz show on TV. You compete against an opponent to see who can better answer a string of questions from categories like science, sports, art and more. You win by gathering “characters” representing each category quicker than your opponent does.

The gameplay is wonderfully simple. But don’t assume the game is overly basic or boring, because it adds some nice touches. You can play against random opponents from around the world or challenge Facebook friends.

Its interface makes Trivia Crack easy to use, the graphics are cheerful and the questions will really puzzle you from time to time. It’s not perfect, however, and you can often encounter questions that seem too easy or that you have seen before. The app is free on iOS, Android and Windows Phone.

Despite Trivia Crack’s runaway popularity, I actually prefer another trivia game app, QuizUp, because it is slightly more sophisticated in design, and I find the questions and game mechanics more interesting.

QuizUp also lets you challenge a friend from Facebook or play against a random opponent. But the game rules are different from Trivia Crack’s: You play against the clock and win by correctly answering questions more swiftly than your opponent.

There are just seven rounds per game, and when you win you increase your “experience points” score in the question category you’ve chosen. A higher score brings rewards like complimentary nicknames that match your category. If you are very clever, you can earn trophies, like becoming the best in your country in a category.

QuizUp’s interface is polished and easy to use, the questions can be challenging depending on the category and each game is swift. You will encounter overly easy questions occasionally, and if you play a particular category often enough you will definitely see questions repeated. But there are hundreds of categories, so the app can remain interesting.

QuizUp is free for iOS and Android, but watch out for those in-app purchases; they’re not critical for gameplay, but tempt you by letting you rise through the ranks more swiftly.
TriviaBurst is an alternative to these two apps, available for iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone.

TriviaBurst is a more stripped-down entry in this category. It has a more basic interface and a much smaller question pool, 70,000 questions. But this app still offers a good challenge, and like QuizUp and Trivia Crack you can play against strangers or take on Facebook friends.

I like this app’s uncluttered design. But I do find the menus to be a little inconsistent and confusing.

Lastly, if you’re a movie buff, you’ll love Movie Cat 2, a quiz app covering just one category: films. I’m fond of this app because of its cute graphics and clever gameplay. It also has a nice two-player mode. The app costs $2 (Rs 124), is only on iOS, and has only a few thousand questions, but they come in the form of visual puzzles as well as straightforward questions and answers.