Friday - by Friedemann Friese for Android

Pros: Quick, fun, and challenging to play. Cons: There is a bit of a learning curve so tutorials/tips would help. Overall: Great game. I have physical copy of it and loved it so much, I picked this digital adaptation up so I can play when traveling.

I downloaded this app to help me learn the physical card game but it crashes 75% of the time and is super frustrating.

Friday is a fantastic solo card game and this version does a great job of making it easy to jump in and play.

On one hand, this is a really good implementation. I already owned the physical game and was wondering if playing it digitally would speed up the process. It did! But it also come with some pretty major drawbacks. There’s a pop up menu that has fading out issues, lingering on the screen well past what it was likely intended to stay on for. This can sometimes slow the game down as it blocks important information, or worse yet, you accidentally click on something you don’t mean to because it was blocking and you didn’t even realize you tapped it. Additionally, it’s missing some minimum-quality-of-life features you see today, such as a basic undo button. I just lost a game because of the lack of an undo button and hey, it might have been my highest score yet, I’ll never know. I didn’t learn any new info or anything, it just doesn’t have any kind of undo button. So is it better than the physical version? Definitely not. But I can take it into a waiting room and it costs very little. The audio and graphics are a bit dated, some graphic elements look like they were from pre-retina displays. Despite the audio feeling a bit lacking, they smartly have an audio cue to let you know if you’ve got the requirements to beat a card. This was smart and frankly ahead of it’s time (if this app is from when I think it was), good on them. But the sounds themselves can be a bit grating and repetitive. There’s also the unfortunately all too easy ability to click on the question mark on a card. I can’t tell you how often it slows my game down from the gigantic pop-up that shows up, requiring you to close it in the top right corner before you do anything else. 3 Star app, 5 star game. I feel 4 stars is a nice middle. I think if they just did some very minor updates for the issues mentioned, it would easily be 5 star and make my physical version a bit redundant even. But as for now, I’d say both versions are nice. If you find yourself reading this, this is likely the version you should get heh, despite the issues. But having both is also nice. At home, I think I will pick the physical version, which surprises me, as I usually prefer app versions of games, especially when they have lots of shuffling.

I enjoyed the physical card game. This implementation captures all the fun with none of the mess of setting up, tracking life with tokens, and putting it all away. It is just as challenging as the original but you can whip through the games to put your losses behind you. I have encountered a couple scenarios where I tried to take ab illegal action. Usually it recovers, but at the end of the game once (I was losing to the final pirate and tried to cheat) it hung the game. But otherwise it is smooth gameplay that tries hard not to let you forget to take advantage of your potential on the board.