Hitster: Schlagerparty – art criticism, testing and review

Hitster – Schlagerparty (Jumbo) comes in an attractive package. The packaging design with its color scheme immediately makes clear what it’s about:

music! paddle! entertainment!

This quiz game by Markus Carlsson doesn’t require much explanation so the basic rules are clearly stated on the back of the package. More rules for tokens or alternative rules can be found online. The link for this is either to copy or as a QR code to scan inside the cover.

Everyone must decide for themselves whether it is an advantage or disadvantage that instructions are available only in digital form. Because it is not entirely surprising that an Internet connection is available. Finally, the information box on the back indicates that you must have a cell phone with Internet access.

Hitster: Schlagerparty provides music for many generations

The principle of the game is simple and simple: listen to the music and classify it according to your schedule. Before the song board is revealed, other people can place tokens if they wish, if they have a different opinion. In the end, the person who guessed correctly on the timeline receives the song plaque.

Surprisingly, the accessible gameplay is a lot of fun, even if the “success” theme put some people off at first. Fortunately, the term “hit” has been defined very broadly and includes songs that can be attributed to other genres. This made it possible for even ordinary people to recognize songs in the hit zone. Some of the pieces were familiar from childhood, others were catchy popular tunes.

Our group enjoyed playing as one team against another team. Here no one had to puzzle alone and raise the flag in disappointment during the song. Instead, people were able to exchange ideas with each other and complement each other in finding solutions.

Unfortunately it’s not technically a “hit”.

Unfortunately, after all this praise there is bound to be criticism as well. Difficulties in technical implementation made it almost impossible to write this review. But let’s start from the beginning:

Download the Hitster app and get started. So far everything has gone as promised. Only the Spotify ad was seen as a bit annoying. Scan the QR code on the cards, listen to music, guess, and enjoy.

It only works with mandatory Spotify account

But after five songs it was all over and the group was taken out of the fun during the audition. Spotify refused to provide the Hitster app with new songs and instead required at least one free account to be opened. Other people at the table also pulled out their cell phones to test this, and unfortunately the result was the same.

Because of nothing else, a Spotify account was created on the test cell phone. Whoever thinks that the infamous journey is over is unfortunately mistaken.

Registration via Google, which was actually intended to be a quick and easy registration, was rejected. Here Hitster app violated the “Use safe browsers” policy. There was no progress at this stage.

So the test group started with the following attempt: registering via a simple email address. With this you can at least open a free account with Spotify. Signing up for the Hitster app was also successful and everyone was excited to finally be able to keep playing.

But from now on, Hitster application refused to work. When scanning QR codes on song sheets, a message appeared saying “Playback is disabled,” indicating incompatible browsers, private mode, or incognito mode.

The only negative was that when I clicked “Get App,” the installed Spotify app opened. All that remains is to select the corresponding song from the already accessed album and play it. So the group was finally able to enjoy the game, albeit in a detour.

Hitster: Schlager Party – Fun Hit?

Actually Hitster is a very good and fun game idea. The long text about technical issues also shows the downsides that multiple applications bring with them.

When everything works (temporarily), this game also puts people in a good mood and spreads a good atmosphere. Especially when playing familiar songs. Thanks to this really good atmosphere, Hitster: Schlagerparty will return to the table in the future.

But can it also be recommended?

Unfortunately it is limited only to clearly indicating the possibility of technical difficulties. This was also the unanimous opinion in the test group due to the various issues that occurred. Because it is understandable that no one would want to recommend Hitster: Schlagerparty to their friends, as it can cause such inconveniences.