Great user interface, easy to use, fun. The one thing that would take this app from good to great is if you got more points for winning than negative points for losing. There are some instances on rated games where I’ll end up winning a hand and go up 8-10 points and then lose the next hand and go down 8-10 points (or sometimes more than if I won). I understand it’s based on the rankings of the other players in the game but just as a general rule of thumb I think your consequence for losing should never be equal to or greater than the reward for winning. Creates a feeling that you aren’t going anywhere in your rank. My style of scoring system still creates groups of more skilled players towards the top end, but it should make it a little easier to get out of the 1700s/1800s.PLEASE FIX THE POINT VALUES FOR WINNING AND LOSING. I went up 8 for winning and then went down 10 for losing the next game when my partner LEFT. You should ALWAYS go up more for winning than for losing, regardless of the rating of the other players. You should go up 7-10 points if you win (based on the rating of who you beat) and go back 3-6 points for losing (based on the rating of who you lost to). Very frustrating, have been stuck in the 1700’s for months because of bad partner play. One step forward, two steps back.

Updated review… fun game.. very competitive.. I have won and lost games.. won many in a row and lost several in a row. It can get frustrating because players who are randomly selected to be a playing partner quit for various reasons: phone battery runs out, watches advertisements too long; made a bade decision while playing (bid too high or went zero and could not achieve it). This game needs to make communication better between players and prevent players from quitting a game. Fun game. Just relax and play, learn to win and accept a loss. Updated review: Please up date the ability to communicate to other players in the “play rated game”. Some communication Examples might be: were gonna win; don’t quit. My mistake. Oops. awesome play. Why did he/she leave?. The phone’s battery must have died. Accidentally unplugged. I have a bad hand. My hand is impressive. Good comeback. Hang in there we will comeback to win. Don’t quit. Just to name a few. I am sure others have suggested expanded communication. ————— This game is fun and competitively difficult. Fun and very competitive. Your partner, whom ever that may be, can get upset and leave in midst of game. Sometimes exiting a game early is not always the fault of a player ... sometimes it’s the phone battery’s fault.

Overall the game play is fine and it does what it is supposed to. There are no lags. I like to play solo (AI version). So this review is based on that. I have the free version and honestly couldn’t find a paid version, if that would make a difference. The biggest, most frustrating part of the game is your team player. It is like you are playing alone but have to also suffer poor decisions of partner. Here are some examples. 1. Going nil: I went nil. Yes it was a stretch, but it was just a game. My partner also went nil. So that means there is no way we could cover for each other.2. Covering Partner: In real play, a partner would cover their teammate if it were a possible move. I went Nil. A suit was called that I had to play and it was only a mid range number. My partner, who was NOT going nil, threw a card less than mine so I won the trick cost our team 100 points. Turns out, they had the Ace of that suit. I could go on with examples like this where having a partner was worse than being a single player. Even if I could sort of get the first scenario, the second made no sense. If it was smart enough to know it didn’t have to over play because the partner had it, it should be smart enough to know the bid was nil and it shouldn’t use that tactic. Every time I play I get frustrated for those reasons. I got over the fact you couldn’t count on the partner. But final straw was when it bid nil when I already had.

I downloaded this app because I wanted to learn how to play spades, and I didn’t want to have to sit and watch people play it and explain everything to me. After a couple of weeks, I learned all the basics and started to pick up some strategies, handily destroying the easy and medium AI’s. Wanting more of a challenge, I switched the difficulty to hard AI. That’s when the cracks started to show. Hard AI doesn’t change up any of its strategies as the other two difficulties, instead it just cheats and knows all of the cards in everyone’s hands. It will bid blind zero when it knows it’s hand is unbeatable, always winning. Also, if you bid zero, it will make every player lead the one suit that will trip you up. Even YOUR partner will lead a card that every other AI can get under except you, like it’s 3 against 1 instead of 2v2. At first I thought it was just really bad luck, but after having so many zero bids scrapped due to a partner throwing under me, or maybe just being short suited and that suit never being played, it’s pretty obvious that “hard” mode is just the AI looking at your hand while you can’t see theirs.It’s a great app for picking up spades, but play with real people when you want a challenge.I played online a little with this game, but most of the time the other players would just stop playing halfway through a game, and then you’d be playing AI’s again.