Wikipedia tells me that SongPop has released a series of music trivia games since 2012. However, I did not learn about this franchise until the newest version of the app, SongPop Party, was recently released as a part of Apple Arcade. If you already pay for Apple Arcade, or if you already pay for an Apple One subscription which includes Apple Arcade, then you can now play this game at no extra charge. I rarely review games on iPhone J.D., but I consider this one to be incredibly fun for anyone who enjoys music — and, hopefully, that includes you. I mentioned this game last Friday at the end of Episode 3 of the In the News podcast, and since then I've had a chance to play it more, including playing games with other members of my family. I'm now a big fan of this game, and I encourage you to check it out.
The gameplay is simple. It's a version of name that tune. The game plays about 10 seconds of a song and gives you four buttons. The buttons either show four different artists or four different song titles. You press the button that corresponds to the artist or song title of the song being played.
You compete against others to see who can press the correct button as quickly as possible. The faster that you press the correct button, the more points that you get.
After ten rounds, the person with the most points wins.
As you win games and earn other achievements, you receive keys. You can use the keys to unlock additional characters.
Better yet, you can use keys to unlock different playlists. Here is how the playlists feature works. When you start a game, you select a music category. The categories include decades (1960s to 2020s), genres (pop, rock, R&B, hip hop, country, dance), and special categories (top hits, family, mixtape, love, soundtrack). Whatever category you pick, you will play against other people within that category.
Within each category, there are multiple playlists. There is always one standard playlist that anyone can select, plus you can use your keys to unlock additional playlists. For example, for the category of the 1980s, the playlists are Essential 80's, 80's Breakup Songs, Cheesy 80's Fun, 80's Mixtape Rewind, 80's Hair Bands, New Wave, 80's Movie Songs, 80's Night Out, 80's Music Expert, 80's Exercise, and then "best of" lists for each year from 1980 to 1989.
When you play in Arena mode, your iPad or iPhone connects you randomly with three other people. Each of you selects a playlist within the same category, and one of the four is randomly selected. For example, I may pick the 1980s as a category because I grew up with the music in that decade and know it pretty well, but if the playlist chosen is Hair Bands, I often confuse the different heavy metal artists and I find it harder to win. But pick 1987 when I graduated high school, and I'm pretty good.
I celebrated Memorial Day by taking a beach vacation with my family, and during some downtime one night, we played this game in Party mode. That mode works the same way as Arena except that one player is the host and the host can invite other players. Thus, I invited my wife, my son, and my daughter. Playing against your friends and family in the same room can be much more fun than Arena mode because you are all cheering or booing for each other. (I recommend that different players use headphones because the music doesn't sync 100% for each device so you get an echo effect.) In my family, there was a fairly direct relationship between how new the song and who won. I think I won a single round in the 2010s, but otherwise, my kids dominated for the last two decades. But select the 1980s or 1990s, or even 1960s, and my wife or I would always win. As much as I enjoyed Party mode, I also like Arena mode because I am more likely to compete against people with similar music knowledge.
You can also play the game on an Apple TV. Instead of tapping on a button, you swipe in the direction of a button to select it. And you can play on a Mac, where the arrow keys on the keyboard correspond to the four buttons.
If you don't subscribe to Apple Arcade, you can instead download the app SongPop 3. That game is from the same developer and features the same name that tune premise, but a different interface. Unfortunately, that game frequently urges you to pay $10 a month for a premium subscription. Trying that version reminded me that one of the things that I like about Apple Arcade is that the games never pressure you into paying for in-app features or subscriptions and don't include any advertisements. I always feel better about my kids playing Apple Arcade games because I know that the games won't include any of that nonsense.
SongPop Party is a fun game that I recommend. With both Arena and Party mode, you can play a quick game yourself or compete against friends and family. And I was amazed how many times the game would remind me of a song that I like but haven't listened to in a long while. I even created a new playlist in Apple Music to keep track of many of the songs I hear in this game that I like, and it is turning into a pretty good playlist.
Click here to get SongPop Party (free with Apple Arcade): 
