Massively Overrated has put together an app that allows users to beef up on their typography skills. Typewar quizzes users on a selection of fonts, giving them a 50% chance at the right answer each round. A random upper-case letter appears along with two font names, while the user confirms the correct answer. It’s this painfully simple concept that makes Typewar a remarkable application.
Typewar Pros:
- Intuitive and clean UI
- In-depth statistic/ranking information
- Online leaderboards
- Brilliantly simple
Typewar Cons:
- Lack of many typefaces
- Increase in “you’re such a nerd” comments
As you start up the app, you have the option to create an account at Typewar and form an alias. This allows you to keep up with a laundry list of statistics about your knowledge of typefaces as you progress, such as your best and worst typefaces as well as an average percentage of correct answers. You are also awarded Badges when you complete such accomplishments as reaching 500 points, and Crowns are awarded to true typography kings that master a certain character or typeface. Each time you finish a round, you can even check the percentage of how many times the grouping was correctly identified. You start out with merely upper-case characters and a few typefaces, and as the game progresses you unlock more typefaces as well as lower-case characters.
The gameplay is surprisingly addictive, chiefly for the desire to move up in the rankings and to unlock more typefaces. We found ourselves obsessing over climbing higher and higher up the nerd ladder, rung by rung, moving from dead last until we ultimately reached first place. Doing so is a bit anti-climactic, as there are no more typefaces to unlock, no more people to rank above, and not even a rise in the overall score. We hope to see Massively Overrated add many more typefaces to Typewar, and the ability to increase our score even after reaching first.
There is also a web version of Typewar that gives a more in-depth look at the statistics and information about other users. We would love to see Massively Overrated incorporate some of the aspects of the web version into the iDevice app, such as being able to see how close the person just ahead or behind of you is in rankings. It would also be nice to see a comparison of the two typeface characters when you get the question wrong, to help correct the mistake next time around. But overall, Typewar has increased our knowledge of typefaces considerably. It can do the same for you if you find yourself wondering what font was used in a certain logo or advertisement. Although the $1.99 price may seem a bit steep in the world of the App Store, this 5-Dimpler will swiftly pay for itself when you impress friends by being able to name the typeface that was used on the restaurant menu.
