A Review of Acrobabble

For all you verbophiles out there, a relatively new game has hit the online playing field. It's called Acrobabble, and it's perfect for those of you who love to think on your feet and bust out with funny sayings.

First, however, let's take a critical look at the game. Acrobabble is hardly the first online game of its kind, but it has original elements that separate it from some of its verbal contemporaries.

Like in its online predecessor, Acrophobia, the point of this game is to take a random group of letters (e.g. A B H J K) and come up with a comical or otherwise original phrase based on them (also called a "Backronym," according to Wikipedia). In the example above, you might say "Abraham Beame Had Jewish Kids!" Depending on how many other players are in the room, you could get any number of variations.

The Rules

In Acrobabble, you have 60 seconds to come up with your (hopefully) creative answer. According to their homepage, each new round is associated with a category, as are many quiz games. This can range anywhere from "Sports" or "Celebrities" to "Bad Names For Retirement Homes" or "That's What She Said." If players so desire, they can make up a category off the top of their heads as well.

During the voting round, players receive a point for each person that votes for their acronym; you cannot, however, vote for your own. The winning player receives bonus points equal to the number of letters in the acronym. Players also receive points for being the fastest contestant to enter their "acro" and receive at least one vote. In addition, if you happen to vote for the winning entry, you receive a bonus point.

There are two forms of the game within the site; one ends with a "face-off." During face-off, when one player reaches 30 points or higher, he and the 2nd-place player enter a one-on-one round, in which each submits an acro. The other players then vote between the two, and the highest score out of three rounds wins the game. If face-off ends in a tie, then the prize goes to the highest scorer from the regular round.

There is also the option of playing without a face-off; in that case, the first player to reach 40 points wins the game.

While Acrobabble is, in theory, appropriate for all ages, it features both "Clean" and "Unrated" chat rooms. In the "Clean" rooms, profanity, racial slurs, and most vulgar slang are automatically censored. In the "Unrated" rooms, those rules are basically out the window. Some players have stated that they prefer the "Clean" rooms, however, because their competitors put more thought into the acronyms.

On an unrelated note, all of the action during the game is narrated by a semi-comical British host, not unlike the famous You Don't Know Jack quiz games. The major difference with Acrobabble, however, is that its narration is fairly straightforward (i.e. no toilet humor).

How's The Game Play?

For those of you who prefer action games like Halo, Doom, and Fallout, this game isn't the adrenaline type. Its crowd tends to be the "puzzle game" lovers, who may or may not enjoy Tetris, Candy Cruncher, and Bust-a-Move.

That aside, within its genre, Acrobabble is at the top of its game. Depending upon whom you play against, you could go through hundreds of games, and never see the same acro twice. Ironically, the game hasn't caught on with a mainstream crowd yet, so there's a good chance that you will see the same players multiple times. Still, this isn't to say the game lacks variety.

Graphic- and sound-wise, it isn't spectacular, but again, it isn't designed for its visual appeal. The game's main strengths are its power to provoke thinking, and its tendency to bring out people's humor.

In Case You Were Wondering...

As stated earlier, Acrobabble isn't the first computer game of its kind; it's simply the latest. According to Acrobabble.com, the earliest acronym-based game was called "Acrobot," and was available through IRC (Internet Relay Chat). In that version, the acronyms ranged from three to seven letters, and players were left to "concoct the funniest, wackiest, witiest [sic] acronym expansion in the allotted time." The initial version of this game is credited to Anthony Shubert, an IRC user.

Several years down the road, Bezerk (Berkeley Systems) released a PC-based version of Acrobot called Acrophobia. At the time, the game exploded in popularity, due to its ground-breaking visual effects and comical in-game commercials.

Strangely enough, the game was removed from the 'Net shortly thereafter; no one seems to have publicly given an explanation. It may be that this sort of game appeals only to a select audience, and that advertisers were unwilling to continually fund the site.

Acrobabble, unlike its older cousins, is based in Flash; ergo, it can run on your browser as well as most operating systems that are compatible with Flash.

As of right now, the game still seems popular with a select crowd. Any regular visitor to Acrobabble.com will likely see the same players more than once. On the upside, however, you may make a few online friends this way.

Can We Talk This Out?

If you've been playing Acrobabble for awhile, and are beginning to like it, you may want to check out the Forum, in which players discuss such topics as "Vocab List for Common 'Stumpers'". Here you'll find a highly useful list of words for some of the more difficult letters, such as J (jabber, jailbait); K (kerosene, ketchup); Q (quadrant, quarantine); V (vacant, Valium); and W (weapon, wheelchair).

Whether or not you become hooked on Acrobabble, such words can be great to have at your disposal. By the way, in case you're looking for recognition of your verbal achievements, the "Top 50 Acros" appear on the homepage, with the original set of letters; the category; the creator's name; the date created; and finally, the acronym itself. It's great for inspiration, if nothing else!

There also happens to be a thread entitled "Acro 30 Somethings," in which former Acrophobia players often meet to discuss the good ol' days of playing the earlier games (and who knows what else?). According to the forum, another version of the game still exists on Talk City, under the name "AcroLaugh" (along with a number of other classic games).

Like many online activities these days, Acrobabble is becoming its own social gathering as well. Judging purely by observation, it seems that between 10 PM and midnight, eastern standard time, is the best time to find the game rooms packed.

Bear in mind, many of the Acrobabble players have jobs, families, etc. So it isn't simply a game for 12-year-olds with nothing better to do. Games of this sort, that actively engage the mind, work well as a creative exercise, and may improve your abilities in other areas as well!

If you happen to have a way with words, I recommend checking out this game and displaying your skills!