When I was asked to review Heads Up! Phones Down Edition, memories of my children playing the mobile version of Heads Up! came to mind. While working seamlessly as a mobile game, holding the phone to your forehead while someone gets you to guess the word there, I wondered if this would translate cleanly to the Switch interface. So, I gathered my wife and children, connected my OLED Switch to the TV, and found out.
The main screen is simple enough with options for Play, Settings, and Credits. If you’re a speedrunner, you can beat the game in under a minute by using the Credits option: you’re welcome. Selecting Play, a screen opens up with a list of different subjects and a further breakdown of categories. Upon making a selection a summary of the chosen category, usually with play recommendations, fills the screen. These vary from kids’ sections to the Bible to “after hours.” After Hours appears to be a “loose” PG-13 rating in regards to the type of language in the clues that I briefly scanned through.
My children are 11, 10, and 7; and they have since asked to play this game again. Heads Up! Phones Down is a party-style game, which lends itself well to the Switch platform and for family play. It is easy enough to pass the Switch around or to remove the JoyCons and play with teams. As an adult, I don’t think that I would make a point to bring my Switch for a party and play it, but with my kids: it’s a win!
That is where my main concern is with Heads Up! It has several adult-themed categories, but there is no setting to hide these categories, thus my children will be relegated to only play with mom and/or dad in view. It’s a shame because it would be played far more often if it had that option. The “animals” category though was a big hit with my children, while some of the pop culture options fell flat.
Ultimately, parents can and should decide what makes sense to expose their kids to. This is just to make parents aware as they are deciding on games the family can enjoy together on the Nintendo Switch. Which game that is will take some intent when considering what fits the children that are playing.
Heads Up! Phones Down Edition does what it seeks to do; it brings people together over a light and snappy party game, and for that I’m sure this will not be the only time my family gets together to play it.
I want to mention an odd technical issue that popped up during play. Reading the category description was incredibly difficult on my TV, giving an extremely downres’d appearance (blur and pixelation), but I noticed no issues on my monitor. This may be unique to my experience, but I still felt it was worth noting.
You can pick up your copy of Heads Up! Phones Down Edition on the Nintendo Switch eshop.