by Alicia Ptak
With about 46% of Americans equipped with a smartphone, downloadable apps are big business. One of the most popular games on student phones is 4 Pics 1 Word. Created by LOTUM, 4 Pics 1 word is a puzzle game with 318 levels. Four pictures are shown, and the gamer must use a group of letters to figure out what word corresponds to the pictures. The user gains coins for each completed level and has the opportunity to spend those coins to help solve the puzzle. When the gamer is stuck, he or she can delete some letters from the group to get closer to the solution, but at a cost. Ninety coins are needed to delete letters, but only 60 coins are needed to show a correct letter. If gamers don’t have enough coins to solve the puzzle, there’s an option to post to Facebook where Facebook friends can give you help with the word for that level.
4 Pics 1 Word has dominated the charts, holding the number one spot for two weeks, until it fell into second place a week ago according to iTunes most popular free apps. Forty-three out of 50 students surveyed who play the popular app say they like the game and play it often. Students who like the app agreed that it was entertaining and fun. Most students surveyed believe that the app could be challenging, but that only made them want to work harder and play more.
The seven students who have played the app and said they didn’t like it agreed that some levels were too challenging. Senior Shane Polomarenko stopped using the app after getting frustrated with its lack of coherency. “A lot of the pictures made no sense with the word they were supposed to represent,” Polomarenko says. “I would end up spending all the coins I just got to try to figure out the answer and end up wasting them because the answer is impossible to guess. I don’t mind a challenge, but some of the levels were just ridiculous.”
4 Pics 1 Word has become very popular in the last month. Many students have downloaded the app and frequently find themselves playing it, with only some complaints. Though trending now, 4 Pics 1 Word may not stay this popular for long. With new apps being invented daily, 4 Pics 1 Word constantly faces new competition and is already starting to slip from its impressive ranking.
