Heads Up!
reviews and complaints

This game is so much fun! We play for hours with family, friends and the kids category is perfect for young children! This is something the entire family can enjoy and it's right on ur phone! The only suggestion I would make to the developers is for a way the game can keep score for the players. You play with a partner and depending on how many teams you have and what score you are playing to, it can become difficult to keep track so it would be awesome if the app put out an update that allowed you to input the number of teams and what score you wanted to play to for the win. We just grab a pen and paper and keep track that way so no biggie but it would be great if the app could keep track for you. Other than that... hands down the best game I've ever played on an app!

This was our go-to game every time my dad was in the hospital or back home recuperating. It was great, until relatively recently.

Now the game freezes at the ‘Time’s Up’ screen after playing a single round, forcing you to close out the app.

Upon restarting the app, you are then given the same words you had in the previous round when selecting the same category, thereby limiting you to play each category only once.

I’ve bought several packs, but it is now basically a waste of money and memory space on my phone.

I’ve reached out to support, but after reading the many articles on this problem I found online, I’m doubtful they will respond. If they do reach out, and fix the app, I will update my review.

Until then, I recommend avoiding purchasing this game as well as any additional decks/packs.

I’ve played this game on a few other friends phones and absolutely love it, so I decided it was time that I give it a download. After I paid the $.99, I was prompted that they were offering a sale on some of their other packs to play for $20. It was over a $100 value for just 20 bucks so I thought I was snagging a great deal! After I purchased the limited time offer, I was promptly notified that I had been charged $45 dollars instead of the 20 that I thought I was spending. After fuming about that for a few minutes, I still decided to play a few rounds so I booted up the game and selected a category only to get stuck on the “place on forehead” screen. I don’t know if either of these instances were possible bugs or glitches, but I’m very very displeased with how my experience has been thus far with Heads Up.

This game costs a dollar sure but is it really worth it? The answer is NO. Ok I’ll admit it’s kind of fun but this game constantly crashes. Also coming back to how the game costs one dollar, the facts are that it only gives a few decks I’ve seen more on ripoff versions for FREE. And if you want more decks you’ve got to pay 20 bucks in 15 minutes or else it costs a whopping 100$! But anyways if you’re looking to buy a fun family game or a game that you can play with friends, keep searching.

Oh yeah one more thing. If your a developer and you’ve took the time time read this far thank you, and also about the constant crashing, this happens when I have my WiFi on and when I have my data on my phone on. Just saying, in case you want to fix this issue. (And I’ll change the rating to 5 star if that happens ;) .)

Everyone knows that this app is awesome. Buy the App& get ready for serious fun. This review is about a deck you can purchase.
In addition to the app, I bought the 'build your own' deck, which was cool at first. However there are problems that leave room for improvement when it comes to this in app purchase:
1st) you can only create 1 deck. No one likes a one hitter quitter. We want more.
2nd) Create-your-own deck is limited at best unless I can share decks I create with friends. Why build your own deck if you can't share it with the world? You can share your video but not a deck you built?
3rd) can't change the font on the title card. Maybe I'm picky.
4th) there needs to be a way to end game. Currently you just have to wait until the timer ends. A box that pops up when you double tap the screen would be nice.

This app is called Heads Up! it was made by Ellen the generous. You have to know that Ellen is the most funniest person on the universe. So she decided to create this game for you guys to play. So let me get to my point now so about heads up. Heads up is the funniest game this app allows you to play with at least two characters so the way this works is in their categories and you can choose to act or to do something else so one person puts the device active for home while the other person is trying to because there are cards and if you flip the device forward it will say correct and it will flip onto the next question now if you can't guess the card then you flip it upwards and then the screen will say pass and you keep on continuing that until you want to be things you guys need to get eight is hilarious and funny

The reason I’m writing this review is because I would like to state an issue that I’ve found with this app. I have noticed that the cards for the same packs keep repeating in the same order and I’ve found the app hard to enjoy because of this. I try to play to pass time and this issue is making me feel like I’m forced to spend money on different packs to have different options for the cards. If you could please add more cards to use with the packs that’d be great. I would definitely update my rating and my review if you were able to fix this. This app has great potential and is very fun to play in my opinion, and I’d totally understand if you aren’t able to fix this issue for some reason, but I’d totally appreciate if you did. Thanks for reading my review, and I’m sorry if I wasted your time and for the tough criticism.

The second to last update made the game crash on startup. The most recent update fixed that problem, but now (after spending $.99 for the ability to create a custom deck) the game is telling me that I have to purchase my custom deck for another $.99 in order to use it!?!

Obviously, this game is coded by drunken monkeys who've suffered severe brain trauma. Ellen (who I still love) owes this big fella an apology.

Edited To Add: After writing the above review, I tried tapping the "Restore Purchases" button at the bottom of the list of decks. Lo and behold, my custom deck is available to me again! But only temporarily. I keep having to "Restore Purchases" in order to access it. Plus, even though I already purchased the "Create A Custom Deck" feature, it's no longer available to me. Do I have to spend another $.99 every time I want to create a custom deck?

This game is so silly and fun, the clues and extra challenges are perfect for our group of idiotic board game aficionados.

Ellen and Team:
for our playing pleasure,

a) please adjust so that the layout can rotate- My right handed iPad cover flaps all over one's head and face when we guess and really distracts from bringing home the win.
Request #2- delete shot clock countdown beeping and instead have a visual cue for the teammate (bottom of the screen countdown?) - as the one guessing, it is right next to our ears only and especially during Mr. DJ where hearing is crucial, the last few seconds prove to be futile.
Lastly, the ultimate clue, especially if it pops up at the last second, is always wasted, never to be seen again in the same game. Anyway to get clues that are not passed nor correct thrown back into the mix?

Uhhhmazing. Thank you for a great app!

Do not pay for this game. There is a free version called Charades! Free by FatChicken Studios that plays exactly the same and is far superior. I have the Charades game and thought that paying for the “real deal” would be worth it. It’s not. This costs 99 cents. Charades is free. This makes loud annoying noises that can’t be turned off through the app. Charades’ sounds can be turned off without changing the device’s volume. Charades lets you change the time to allow for more or less time. This has no changeable settings. This makes you pay real money for additional and customizable decks. Charades can get more through playing a lot or paying money. And many paid additional decks in this are already free and available right away in Charades. Besides Ellen DeGeneres’ name attached to it, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to get this game. If you don’t believe me, Charades is free so try it.

The game is mis-programmed glitchy or broken and needs an update or someone made a bad call in marketing!

We have been enjoying this game for over 5 years. We recently bought all the packs and noticed the app updated.
The game no longer plays as it was originally designed. When you open a deck to play (on almost every deck), it plays the exact same cards as it did on the previous round. So we can no longer play and compete and if we enjoy a deck we only can play one round without having to skip the 1st 10-15 cards to get to new ones.
Please fix the game! This has been a family favorite and we would love to see it go back to its original design.
Also, since this is a family game, it would be nice to have the feature back that allows you to put away decks that aren’t being used or may not be appropriate for children (when we bought the multipack deal it game with several adult decks that we wouldn’t have otherwise purchased).

They need a new update ASAP, because it just keeps adding build your decks, and it causes the app to freeze up, and then it crashes. Had to delete it (which caused me to lose the decks I did make), and after opening it again a couple of times, its adding excessive decks again. Please fix soon, I do actually like this game when it works.

UPDATED Review (05/26):
You guys made an update, but still haven’t resolved the glitch regarding it shutting down and continuously adding build-your-own decks after purchasing. Please fix this, I want the app to work.

UPDATED Review (07/31):
Not crashing as much, but the build-your-own decks are acting glitchy. Need a new update.

UPDATED Review (08/01):
The last update is causing it to crash, I can’t even open the app.

UPDATED Review (11/22/200):
With the latest update, I can’t open the app at all, it just crashes and closes. I even deleted it, reinstalled it, and it still crashes and won’t open properly.

I recently downloaded this app after deleting it years ago. At the time I thought in needed some improvements. I was disappointed to see very little has changed. There are several improvements need, first of all it is really annoying that you can't add more time to a round. One minute rounds seem short. You should be able choose one, two or three minutes before starting a round. It is disappointing and frustrating for younger players to only get one or two right in a round. Second, I would also like to be able add or edit cards to a deck that I purchased. The decks you buy don't have a lot of cards and once you play them a couple a times it's not fun any more because you keep getting the same cards over and over again. I would like to add more cards to keep it fun. Finally, I don't like that "Build your own deck" only lets you make one deck, then I have to buy it again to make another deck. I would and also like to share a deck I created with family and friends. Fun game, but needs to evolve to something better.

I've really enjoyed playing this game with family and groups, plus the video function is just great. So much fun for everyone!

I agree with other reviewers about the build-your-own deck critiques.

1) Having to pay repeatedly for blank decks seems excessive. I also thought I was purchasing the deck believing I could build multiple custom decks with it. At least give the option for up to 5 if not unlimited, especially since I'm doing the bulk of the work coming up with new lists of words!

2) There's no way to share custom decks with others as far as I know, especially at the very least among one's own devices and amongst family, now that you can share bought apps within family members on iTunes. Being able to share with friends and others would add a whole new social element to the HeadsUp community!

3) If custom decks could be backed up onto iCloud, that would improve functionality greatly. It'd be sad to lose decks I've put in a lot of time to create.

Thanks again for the game, worth the purchase, and hope these suggestions may be seen in future versions.

This app is fun and has a smooth execution and no ads...justifying the $.99 cost. (Other Charade genre apps are often free, but have ads. Removing them costs $.99...making Heads-Up the same price.)

The Bad Apple in the basket has to do with the additional $.99 it costs to create Custom Decks. When I paid for that option I thought it was getting me the functionality of creating unlimited custom decks. Wrong! It only allows you to make ONE custom deck. If you want to make more custom decks you have to pay $.99 for each additional one. That's greedy and IMO, bad business, because it makes for unhappy customers

I am a teacher and thought this would be a great way to add some high energy fun and learning to each unit I cover in class. But at $.99 per unit my excitement quickly was extinguished.

Since other Charade apps offer unlimited custom decks for free I don't see how this business model will be sustainable… Despite being associated with Ellen. Even though those other Charade apps have ads, you can remove those ads for $.99...and that is a one time purchase. That is a Nice Apple.

When my brother first got this game on our family iPad, I was quite curious to see what the goal was. We took turns trying it out, 1 day at a time, and each of us were eager for our turn. It took each of us by a storm. We downloaded it to every electronic in the house, including computers and the Xbox.

My slightly older brother, who was 14 at the time, made it his goal to complete the game. He looked up cheats, read books (which was amazing as he would do it rarely) played until 3:00 in the morning, until one day, he had finished the game completely and had a 5 minute celebration along me! But what were we going to do now. Each of us had loved this game deeply and had found out everything about it. So we sat there and thought about it.

The great thing about this game is that once you win, the game isn't over. You can still make cities and kingdoms! Turn the world into your own. The possibilities are endless. But along with the pros are the cons.

What's wrong with this game? Unbelievably, very little. Must needs be that there has to be a finishing point in every game. Once you have gone and completed it, you feel accomplished for a time. But then you feel emptiness inside. What now? This beloved game is now over. You know everything. The problem is is they only have 5 worlds to explore. Why not more. You have land, water, underground, Nether World and then the finishing point. Why not have other ways that you can travel to different worlds but only revealed after you finish the first part of the game. That way, players have another challenge ahead of them.

So with this new update, we get "High Definition" video recording but all this did was allow wide video format when saving the videos. The quality is garbage though. I think it's actually worse than 480p... it's so pixelated, it might as well be 240p. Not only that but now it turns my phone into a substantial heat generator. It looks like this app uses every 100% of my phones CPU/GPU, draining the battery insanely fast. I have an iPhone 7 Plus... I went from 80% battery to 35% in under 30 minutes. I can't imagine what it would do to older/smaller phones.

Bought the solely for the dance moves. Once purchased, it doesn't have any dance moves deck. I finally find it on the bottom under "extra decks". Of course this single deck now costs an additional .99. Infuriating.
Ok. I try to buy. But I get a stupid screen saying I'm not authorized to purchase...and the whole phone 5s locks up. I shut down the app, try again , same thing.
I go back to the iTunes overview of this ripoff, and see that All the Right Moves is supposed to come with the standard package.
I really hate being ripped off, and now having no recourse.

I've downloaded the free knock-off version and the ads were annoying. I decided to pay for Ellen's because I've heard such great things. It turns out you have to pay additionally for each deck and there are still tons of ads that you have to wait for and scroll through before you can play. Sometimes, while you're playing, an ad will interrupt your game and you have to start all over. You can't play that trial deck again unless you pay the dollar for the 30 second quiz. It's greedy and stupid. I'll just play the free knock-off version of this game. It's basically the same thing.

As noted by several other reviewers, the latest update RUINS the program. I have previously purchased 6 - 8 additional decks, and the entire program no longer functions after the latest update.

One reviewer was able to uninstall and reinstall; however, I also noted another reviewer that was unable to restore his or her purchased decks. I no I am not willing to risk losing all my previous purchases for an update that supposedly fixed small bugs and added another deck you could purchase that I don’t want.

This has been a fantastic app, but it is completely worthless right now...

This game would be great if free. However, it isn’t free, and the algorithms are very poor. While playing we frequently had entire sections repeat and a very limited number of themes to choose from — of course, more were available for extra fees.

As is, if you’re having a customer pay for an app, it would be great to have more themes available OR more choice options/better algorithms so games don’t repeat. The app is only useful to play for about 20 minutes with the available features. Even though the game is $1, this version really should be free based on its current quality.

Bought this for my kids because all their friends have it. I noticed at the end of the round, that it was displaying a live video taken from the selfie camera on the front of my phone. There was no option to turn it off within the game. Actually I couldn't find options at all in the game. I went to my phone settings and found camera access was enabled. I never got a pop up requesting permission. Lots of other pop ups trying to sell additional decks. And the game freezes up whenever you scroll. Overall I'm very disappointed. I don't expect glitch issues from a paid app. And I won't tolerate privacy issues.

Heads up would be awesome for use in the classroom except for the crazy fact that it doesn't work properly with Apple TV. With the create your own deck teachers all over America should be using this app with their students. But instead of putting the word behind the student on the big screen so the whole class can see, instead the student has to hold an iPad. The app is 5 stars all the way in a small group setting but 1 star in a large group setting simply because the app doesn't work properly with Apple TV's mirror feature. When using Apple TV the app orients side ways instead of properly.

Please fix this!

I bought this app awhile ago and didn’t have any problems with it. I just downloaded it again (had removed it off my old phone awhile back) and for some reason, keep getting an “SKERROR DOMAIN” message whenever I want to restore my purchases or try to download a free deck. I’ve tried deleting and re-downloading the app itself throughout the day but I still get the same message. It says to contact them if it keeps happening but the developer website link just goes to the ellentube page? I didn’t see anything about how to connect with someone other than to appear on the show, etc. Does anyone know how to fix this?

The point of paying for an app is too prevent most in-app purchases and get a full game. But in heads up's case they want to make you pay for the game and also make you pay for more decks. It's absolute bs how I wasted money to find that I only got 8 decks and 2 free ones you can download. The app description clearly describes 18 decks but doesn't want you to know that you only get 8 of them when you download the app. It's saying something when the free knock off version with ads is better as it has more decks. Currently trying to get a refund for this money grubbing little app. And just do your self a favor and get the free version.

Oh I loved this game! Hours of fun! Since we were enjoying it so much, I decided to purchase the build your own decks. I spent a lot of time creating decks with topics that would be meaningful to my friends and family. We’ve played those BYOD decks as well as many of the pre-made decks for purchase. I sat down to buy another BYOD deck and create a new category when I realized my previous custom decks were gone. I tried restoring purchases and updating the app, but to no avail.
Is there any way to get those back?
I don’t want to purchase any more decks if they might disappear.
Hoping for a response from customer support.
Thank you!

The expectation when you buy a paid app is that you're *notgoing to be inundated with a million little pop ups expecting you accidentally click/spend more money. the core gameplay is fun and I don't mind that they add different pop culture references behind paid additional "decks", but the 60 second rounds are far too short and there's no way to lengthen them. Worse yet, between every 60 second round is an ad that takes up most of the screen estate trying to sucker you into buying paid features. Very sorry state for the game to be in when you spend more time trying to click through the menus than actually playing the game. Don't recommend it all.

I heard about the new mystery deck where it chooses a random deck and it’s a new deck every week. I have checked every week but for the past 2 or 3 weeks, the mystery deck is still the F•R•I•E•N•D•S deck. I don’t even watch that show. Please change the mystery deck every week. It’s getting on my nerves to still see F•R•I•E•N•D•S as the mystery deck every day.

Update: It’s May and the mystery is still F•R•I•E•N•D•S! I don’t understand why they are too lazy to change it. It may be glitch or something on my phone because I do have an old iPhone 6SE but that mystery deck needs to changed. I don’t watch F•R•I•E•N•D•S so don’t expect me to do that deck.

I first downloaded this game 6 months ago, and my boyfriend and I loved it. I wound up deleting it because we stopped using it as often, and just recently brought it back. I had purchased several decks and now they won't re download. Also, the constant ads before each round are ridiculous. Having to sit through a 30 second ad every time I play a round led me to just deleting the app again. Also, since it won't let me re download my decks, we've just been playing the free rounds, and more than a couple times I've sat through the ad, and then the app dies. When I bring it back, it says I already used my free round. Overall, very unhappy with how it's changed

I’ve purchased many MANY decks over the years. I’ve tried downloading/redownloading & “Restoring My Deck Purchases” countless times on the App but nearly all my purchased decks are gone. They dissappeared, were wiped clean. The only option is to keep re-buying everything I’ve already paid for over & over to get it to stick. I’ve tried emailing Head’s Up App support numerous times w/ no response. They can continue to add new seasonal decks & do updates but they don’t have the decency to reply to paying customers who’ve helped contribute to this game’s profittable success. Can someone from support please kindly contact me!? I just want the game decks I paid for back (I have my iTunes receipt emails as proof!). Thank you.

Wanted to play more decks- even purchased a pack but they are not showing up in my stacks, and the free ones disappear! Please fix This!

I’m been charge of this app. I don’t even use it nor have it download. Is there any email or support I can contact ? I don’t understand why I’m been charge if I don’t even have the game. Is there any way they don’t charge me ?