TapCritic – Honest iPhone and iPod Touch App Reviews

The frustration with Fizz Buzz reveals itself in two steps.  First there’s figuring out what the hell to do, a process even more annoying for an anti-directions man like myself.

I mean, when you first launch the app you are presented with the number “1,” a ticking timer, and two buttons labeled “fizz” and “buzz.”  Clicking the buttons either makes the timer reset and move to “2″ or gives you a “too bad” dialogue box that ends the “game.”

If you’re like me, your first instinct is not to go check the directions but instead to keep pushing random buttons and drive yourself mad.

When you do finally check the directions, though, the second wave of frustration begins.

First off, the “rules” tab is buried in a menu within a menu.  A user must click a tiny info button and then select rules just to find out what this game is all about.  And then it’s revealed that the whole thing is one big math problem.

You select “fizz”, “buzz,” both, or the number itself depending on if the number in the middle is divisible by 5, 7, both, or neither.  The numbers count up from one, and your goal is to count as high as you can without screwing up.

It gets hard pretty fast.

In addition, there is an advanced mode that is even more complicated.  Let’s not get into that.

When you lose, you get a simple dialogue box.  Want to save your progress for later?  TOO BAD!  There is no option, although you can change the timer and the “start number,” as well as which numbers you are dividing by.

This one gives me flashbacks to third grade math flash cards, and I don’t really like it–especially considering the app is advertised as a game and not an educational tool.  If you’re trying to learn your simple division, this one might be worthwhile.  But if you’ve got an iPhone, you have a calculator on you all the time, so what’s the point, right?

You can buy Fizz Buzz for $0.99 HERE.

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