IOS version 10.3.2

online server is out of order for 6 days per every week.

enough is enough

Game Center connection failure often happens during game with opponent Please update

No Game Center. No response from devs. Don't buy this if you think you're gonna play online.

I really like this game, but often the app badge notifications get...confused?...when iOS updates come out. Usually the badge just doesn't clear when I've taken my turn, but right now it is straight up backwards. The notification disappears when it's my turn, and stays on when it isn't. Luckily, I play another game with the same friend and we both tend to take our turns in the games at the same time, so I rely on that game's app badge to let me know when it's my turn in Lost Cities.

A minor bug to be sure, but still an annoyance in an otherwise wonderful and very enjoyable app.

A really fun, quick, easy to learn two player card game. Online multiplayer works really well, but a couple times I've had to power my phone off and then back on to get it to register another player's turn. Minor issue, stellar app.

This is an awesome game, but it's sad that the most recent update broke the Game Center multiplayer.

Please update this game. Game Center does not exist and starting game is a mess etc.

Please fix the multiplayer interface so that the Game Center use is gone.

This used to be a five-star app for me but since the most recent OS update, it no longer works. All my games froze and they have now all expired. I really enjoy playing this game so I hope an update is in the works.

I enjoy this game quite a bit. It's fun to play against other people. But the game freezes on my iPhone quite a bit. I have to turn the phone off then on again to make it work properly.

Make iPad app

I quite enjoy this game, and my husband and I have a pretty much perpetual game in progress. But in the last week or so, I find I have to reboot my phone daily to get my moves to go through, which is extremely annoying.

As I just lost a game due to the poor UI, I feel obliged to post. When it's your turn and the cards are larger, they're still too close together and so far too easy to grab the wrong card. It's also far too easy to place a card in the play (instead of discard) pile.

Additionally, a badge on the app icon telling you it's your turn is really needed.

Servers have been down for several days now.

My wife and I love this game and at times have had games going asynchronously for months on end. The problem is, it is inconsistent in giving notifications when it is your turn. Sometimes you have neither the badge or a notification and the only way you find out is your opponent tells you. But even then, sometimes you take a turn and it doesn't register. I've taken the same turn a dozen times before it actually sends. Sometimes I take the same turn dozens of times only to give up and remake the game. When you try to rematch after a finished game it often confuses takes a day or two for the game to actually start. My wife and I will look at our phones and both hit rematch only to see one or both of our phones saying that you are waiting for your opponent to decide. Just buggy and has been for a LOOONNGG time. Not a recent problem, but a constant for a few years.

Worth the purchase! If you like the Lost Cities card game and can't get your family to play with you all the time, definitely pick up this digital version.

I was tired of all those low quality free games and games that make you wait long periods to play again. I can play this one as much as I want, however I want, wherever I want. No internet connection required so I can play on the plane.

I loved the Xbox version and this one for iPhone is even better. You can tell a lot of time, quality, and testing went into this game. The UX design is very professional, down to the detail of the parallax effect in menus just like the iOS home screen. I thought about writing this game for myself because I couldn't find it on any online marketplaces anymore and I am impressed how they fit the game into the small form factor. It plays very well on the phone. Please make an iPad version though!

Since upgrading to iOS 9 on my 5S, the card animation is no longer smooth. They abruptly jerk into their slots. Please fix.

The board game is one of my favorite two person games. I was so happy to find that the app is just as fun. No bugs that Ive found.

Sadly, has a huge issue where it will say it's your turn, and will update Game Center that it's your turn, but the app will take several days to actually let you take your turn.

I've reported the bug twice to Coding Monkeys, and no update to fix. Sad, because this is otherwise a fantastic game.

I am throughly enjoying playing this game against AI, but unfortunately I can not currently play against friends. I have been told by support that this was caused by iOS 9 and they are working hard on a fix, but I just thought I would give a little word of warning for anyone that is thinking of purchasing this game with that in mind. I really hope they can fix this soon, as the game is absolutely great otherwise.

Always liked the card game. App does a fine job of recreating it. However, whenever I try to invite a friend to play online, it assigns me a random match instead. Makes it useless to me.

It always does "auto-match" instead.

The game works but there are unresolved bugs. Mainly, the app doesn't produce reliable notifications. Sometimes it tells its my turn and other times it just won't.

5 stars if updated. But I'm not holding on to any hope.

Stupid squared. I don't pay to watch a computer cheat me. Delete.

I first saw this game, and was immediately intrigued. Watched appspy's review, and gave it a go.

I was a kittle skeptical of the price, but once I started playing through the spoken walkthrough, I was sold. Very satisfied.

This is a great game and can be very fun to play once you learn. The look is different from the original actual game, but this way, it keeps track of your score for you. Very nice, great music, gameplay, and fun to play against computers and actual friends or people online. Great game. Definitely download it :)

*update*

For months now since the big iOS updates for 7 and 8, the app has been severely plagued by problems and bugs that cause the app to not notify you when your moves are ready. Also the App Badge icon always reads at least 1 or 2 or 3 even when you have no turns. They said they fixed these problems and bugs but they still happen. I love you Coding Monkeys. Please fix one of my all time favorite apps!

Needs 6/6+ support in a 2.0 release.

Other than that this game rocks and everyone should get the real board game as well.

Great game!

Been playing for 2+ years. Never gets old. Great simple quick game.

I enjoy playing the paper card version of this game. Perhaps, when I upgrade my device, I will enjoy using this iPhone, opening the Lost Cities app, starting a new game, and then using a brick to smash it into f*cking glitter.

The fact that multiplayer games only last for once through the deck reduces the amount of skill needed to win. A big improvement would be to define the number of rounds played or to a defined point total. This is how the card version is played. Disappointing that the app version doesn't work the same way.

This game plays quick, has lots of replay value and strategy, and is a great implementation for iphone. The online play is great too. Well worth it.

Hasn't worked correctly since introduction of iOS 8. Updating to 8.1 hasn't helped either. I've tried deleting and re-downloading to no effect as well.

Furthermore the UI is still not optimized for iOS 8 (e.g. Large status bar indicative of apps that weren't updated)

Been playing this game for years with no problems--until now. Coding Monkeys do a great job on Carcassonne, but this game must get the scraps of their time or something.

Deleted from my phone and will probably never come back. Oh well, at least I won't be taunted by the red number badge indicating its my turn anymore.

The iOS 8.1 update seems to have fixed the broken turn-by-turn so I'm no longer spending my time staring at a spinner that might or might not reveal a turn for me in 3 minutes. One of my favorite games for a quick session of play with friends.

After playing this every day for years now, since iOS 8 came out Lost Cities has been broken. This makes me very sad. Please fix it. I can't play online with my friend.

Update: supposedly fixed, but not really. Worked briefly when I started up a new game, but is now back to not working.

A shame since this is one of my favorite apps — despite two updates this doesn't work.

The Game Center play never works. This used to be great. Please fix! Thanks!!

What is the point of owning this app if it won't work? Ever since iOS 8 (and the updates) it hasn't worked. I can't see my turns and I can't start games. I can only play against the computer. No fun. WAS one of my favorite games, now it's broken. The developer made Carcassonne, and that works perfectly. Why not this? Please fix this.

Cannot play since iOS 8 update. Games show up in Game Center but cannot make a move or start a new game or do anything. Formerly great game.

Great game but it will not let me play my turn in on line games. Only a problem with the latest update.

***Still broken since iOS 8 update. Developer is quick to respond to emails, but after weeks still can't fix the game. Multiplayer turns no longer advance, new games can't be started, and it is effectively broken. Dev blames problem solely on GameCenter. I have tons of other games using GC and they are working just fine. One of the best games on iOS is now garbage fare. Can we ever see a fix?

**Broken with iOS 8. No longer starting or continuing games.

I want to second the review that mentions the AI being cheaty...that's been my opinion - definite improvement needed there. Also, really, no tablet version....? Game plays fine on a tab, but would be nice to have a version that makes use of this retina display. Also, I browsed through the achievements, and some of them are completely bugged (i.e. not registering) and some are ludicrous - 100,000 games played vs a crappy AI? Repeat, 100,000 games played vs crappy AI? Not to mention most people probably buy this to play on game center vs friends.

Otherwise, the game plays extremely well, just like the card version, and is one of my favorite iOS games. Buy it! But, TheCodingMonkeys need to offer realistic achievements and improve the AI.

Update: I also wanted to mention that I would easily give this game 5 stars for better AI, and a realistic achievement system. Multiplayer with friends via Game Center, and the mechanics for switching between games - brilliant.

Great implementation of this game on iOS, but recently broken and unplayable with others. My wife and I both have a copy and play each other regularly. We have a work around that is figety, hopefully will be fixed soon

Would love to give this game a five!'s usually would but,Game crashes and won't let us play games and Game Center. Has been broken for a while now. Love this game usually please please fix!

This is a really fun game but the Game Center integration doesn't work. I click on auto match and nothing happens. Tried logging in and out of Game Center like suggested and still nothing happens. Please fix this and it would make the app 5 stars!

This game is absolutely perfect, me and my buddy have played 200+ straight games with it and we're STILL addicted. BUT - why oh why is there only 10 emoticons to choose from?!? It limits the kind of laughs you can have in-game. With the next update - more emoticons please!

Lost Cities is one of my favorite two player games to begin with, but they did a fantastic job making this into an iPhone game. It's quick to learn, hard to master, and very competitive! You can win with different strategies and is the perfect balance between luck and skill. My only criticisms are is that it's a bit hard on your battery. Also, and less of an issue is that it should be easier to invite people outside of Game Center to games so you can get your friends in on the action. Finally, the discard pile being so close to the play area makes it very easy to play or discard when you meant to do the opposite. Frustrating. Still, it's definitely worth paying for, warts and all.

In general, it is great. That said, here is the bug list:

- Bypasses notification center. I hate the badges and really want these off.

- Badges are messed up. It always says I have two games waiting, whether I do or not.

- "Rematch" rarely works on first try.

Giving it 4 starts instead of 5 because I can't turn off badge notifications for the game in Notification Center.

Just spoke to the developer, and they're saying that Apple doesn't allow for turn-based games to be on the list of apps in the Notification Center.

While I realize this is then almost entirely an Apple issue, I would still like for the developer to get Apple to change their policy regarding turn-based games.

I would give this game 5 stars otherwise.

Sincerely,

Kareem

I usually become enthralled with a game and play it A LOT then quickly move on to another game. Not this time. I still only want to play this game several years later. That has never happened. This game has the perfect blend of strategy and luck to keep me interested.

If I review an app I typically give it a high rating because I’m either thrilled with the app or absolutely terrible. Lost Cities is one of those apps I’d give 11 stars if it were possible. Not only is it fully VoiceOver accessible, which means even those with visual impairments can play, but play with anyone regardless of their ability or disability. This is one game that is incredibly addicting and I really look forward to playing my friends. I really like the fact that you can play a game over a period of time, so if you’re busy you can start a game and make a move when you have some time. This means a game could go on for a while; however, this can be beneficial since you can consider your strategy. You can play several people at once, which helps you build on your strategies. Hey, look, just go get the game. You’ll be challenged, entertained, and become a junky.! :) seriously, this is one game I just don’t see myself getting tired of. Think of it like math meets card game and then hooks up with chess.

Great game, challenging to learn to play well, but easy to understand. Twice now I have had it lose all my data after months of play, though. Very annoying suddenly to have it start up as if you have never played the game before.

I love playing this game, and it's especially good when you have three minutes you need to kill.

But it takes battery life from 100% to less than 50% in less than thirty minutes of play. And heaven forbid you forget to delete the app out of the background when you're done playing! Your phone will be dead before lunchtime.

Please update to make it less of a resource hog.

Continues to be a good experience.

I've been playing multiplayer for a while now. It excels in that area. One of the recent updates has made the game look stupendous on the iPad 2. Ever though this is listed as an iPhone game. It's not native iPad. But looks close, with "hires" type graphics and not pixel doubled like before. Yay. Thanks.

Lastly, today my wife's on the other side of the world (in different time zone). Today, we are FaceTime Audio-ing, catching up the days events, while playing Lost Cities. Yea.

I just downloaded this game, having heard good things about it from others. I heard it works great wih voiceover and that the tutorial is quite good, so I chose to listen and learn. I was expecting a relatively friendly tutor to walk me through the first few turns while voiceover read the cards. I was rather surprised and disappointed to find that the more I tried to learn my way around the game layout, the more impatient and patronizing the talking tutor became. Of course, I realize this is just a computer program. I truly believe the creators meant to be humorous and teasing, not genuinely insulting, but to someone who is all too aware of how much faster those with sight can absorb a screen full of material, it just made me feel dimwitted and clumsy. Perhaps giving a choice of how much time the player has to take an action would help. I love a good battle of insults and jokes, even when it's slightly at my expense. I simply want a fair chance before the teasing starts.

Also, when the talking tutor is speaking, it is somewhat hard to hear what voiceover is saying, thus giving me another disadvantage. Lowering the volume of the tutorial would help a great deal.

Despite my first experience, I feel sure this will soon become one of my favorite iphone games. I'm going back now to restart the game and the tutorial albeit without selecting the "listen" option this time.

Lost Cities is the best game I've ever purchased on iOS. The amount of gameplay I've gotten out of this game is unbelievable. You should buy this and play with your friends. It's more than worth it.

A surprise hit with our group. I've always got multiple games of this going. Full of hard decisions and strategy from beginning to end.

Have the actual card game and this app. Both are fun and addictive in the best way. Wish there were more online players though. Seem to compete against the same people a lot. There is a bit of issue with transferring games from iPad to iPhone but nothing to take away from how fun and straightforward the game is and the app adds the fun achievements. One more last thought - wish you could see how many cards are in the discard piles very clearly as this is an element of the physical game that can come into play strategically at the end.

I have never played the physical game, but the general concept is a lot of fun. And this version is executed flawlessly! Easily my most played iOS game and I reckon this is up there with Tetris in terms of addictiveness. Just get it!

There aren't many VO-friendly games in the App Store, and this is hands-down one of the best!

The gameplay itself is easy to learn, extremely fun, and addicting. Where Lost Cities shines is in the level of accessibility. With VO,all buttons are clearly labeled; the gameplay is smooth and responsive; and there are even audible clues during the game.

Thanks to the developers for making such a fun and accessible game… And hopefully more to come in the future!

How can you port one of the most popular board/card games and not make it universal? No landscape mode (which, for all practical purposes, is the way this game should be formatted!!) and no pass and play mode. Also, last but certainly not least, there are only 40 cards to draw in the deck! In the actual game, there are multiple copies of each number for every color; I have never drawn more than a single copy of any number for my color! The game is over way to quick with little strategy... Just play the cards you have with no real advantage to holding and discarding at the right time. It seems that the release was rushed to make a buck (game is pricey at that as well) and the updates have not rectified any of the real issues. Great disappointment from a typically outstanding developer. Hopefully they'll rectify these horrendous blunders quickly.

This game doesn't have a timer limit on how fast a player need to make a move without being booted from the game. The game developers intended to make this game friendly to those people who tries to sneak a few gaming sessions while gaming. I had also this sore loser that hanged there for 20mins trying to get me to dodge and give him the win with 1 card left in the game to play and he was trailing 20 points.

If you want an engaging experience please do look elsewhere. Other than that this game is good and bug-free.

This game is very fun and addicting once you get the hang of it. I appreciate the voice over support as well. One complaint though, so far, I have not figured out a way for it to notify me that someone wants to play a game with me or when it's my turn if I'm outside the app. I'd like to see push notifications unless it's me and I'm missing something. I searched the entire app. I do get notified if I'm in the app however. Thank you for a fun game. My only other let down is the price. It seems a bit high.

Lost Cities is a great card game, but this iPhone version is even better than the original. If you lake any card games, you'll love this game. Great variety of achievements to win plus asynchronous offline multiplayer. I have two complaints. Some of the achievements are effectively impossible, and I really wish there was a way to require a multiplayer match to be real time so you would never get matched with a slowpoke opponent. Still, really awesome game.

In every way, this is the best card game I've come across. The tutorial is superb, it's liquid smooth, music and sounds are incredible, multi-player support is fast and reliable (no local multiplayer yet), and the artwork is top notch.

Highly recommended, can't say that enough. If you appreciate Carcassonne's polish - you'll love this one!

PS - this app uses Game Center for notifications, adjust settings there (mine is set to Banner, no sound)

Played this board game tonight at my local game store and it was a trip. It took us 10 minutes to add up the score. Very complicated. I came home and looked it up on my iPhone and here it is. I can say this iOS version is better because it keeps the s ore and you can see where you are score wise.

Nice fast paced game.

I play this game whenever I can when I found this on the iPhone I was interested at once. The online playability of this game is where this game shines. Once you finish your first online game, you'll want to come back for more

If i reach the max number of ongoing games why should I have to forfeit the old outstanding ones (to the detriment of my score )because my opponents don't want to finish? They should lose the game if they don't come back within a few days or so.

I would rate it higher if this was corrected

This is a brilliant implementation of the game but.....The one issue is the ability for people to disappear into the void. Personally I'd much rather play one real time game then multiple games. I'm looking for a mechanism to encourage the opponent to respond in a timely fashion. It needs something like an optional game parameter where a timeout is enforced, say 1-2 minutes a turn, or a loss is accessed. I'm tired of waiting 5 minutes for the opponent to play.

This is a fun game and quite addicting. However, after beating all 10 levels, there is no more to achieve. For game play and replay value, highly worth it, but would love more challenges! Also, online competition isn't working either.

I love the board game and was excited to see there's an app that does it justice. I only play against the computer and everything has worked fine. I wish there were more than just 10 levels to work toward, I'd like some new challenges!

If you're considering this game and happen upon this review, please know that this game is the perfect balance of difficult, but not too. Some reviews lament that the game is too easy or too difficult. This may be true for a few people, but on balance you will feel challenged but not ridiculously frustrated. In other words, it's VERY fun!

Developed by The Coding Monkeys and it sure shows! The game is simple to play but requires planning ahead to out score your opponent. You can play the AI or online against someone through Game Center (which works wonderfully) The UI is beautiful and well thought out. In game graphics are smooth with stunning art design for the lanes of play. Music runs in the background and adds a nice touch. Overall highly rated!

Thanks for the game, it's great! However, there is one thing that I don't like about multiplayer is a lack of timeout after which a game is considered as lost. I have three games on my list where I am winningб hanging for more than a week waiting on opponent's turn. Obviously, the people I am playing with are not going to come back and finish the game, but there is nothing I can do. The only option I have is "Surrender" and if I select it, then "The game will count as lost". Why me? So, basically, any time you see you are losing, you just have to drop the game and start a new one with another opponent. 24-48-hour timeout should do the job, i.e. if a person did not make his move in 2 days, the game would be counted as lost.

this is a great card game to play. Each game takes just a few minutes to play. The game is full of strategy that you will quickly discover. The achievments in the game are also quite fun to try and reach. Trying to win the game with negative points is a big road block for me. LOL. Love the game.

A fun if slightly heavy on the luck side of strategic, draw-based two-player card game. Definitely a huge amount of polish, but unlike Carcassonne which is burnished to a fine, lovely gem of an app that I would never consider removing from my device, this one just has a few too many sharp corners.

It *really* suffers from using Game Center for internet play, unlike Carcassonne. You can only play one match per friend, which really is a crime for an asynchronous game with turn lengths that are so short. You should be able to have multiple games with one person going at the same time. Furthermore, there is no bluetooth or local LAN multiplayer, and because Game Center is so miserable with latency even sitting in the same room trying to play a game you're stuck waiting 20-30 seconds between turns, which really ruins the flow.

Otherwise, it's good, really good at times, for play against the AI but where it should shine in asynchronous multiplayer, it's just "ok."

It's too easy to accidentally put a card in the pool instead of your lane. You cannot take this action back and one slip of the finger can ruin the game and force you to surrender.

On the real board game, the pool is in the middle with your lanes below. It's opposite here, so it makes it even easier to make the mistake if you are used to the real game.

Worse is that you lose the game because of this mistake, and it counts permanantly against your score. You have to uninstall and reinstall to clear your good name.

I'm sure they probably did an OK job with the game, and I certainly should have read the description more closely, but unless a 2-player offline mode is added, this one is destined for deletion. Games like this and TTR Pocket are ideal for lunchtime pass-and-play sessions with my gf. If I'm playing a turn once-every-so-often online, I prefer a game with more and meatier decisions per turn, like Ascension, Neuroshima Hex, Summoner Wars, or even Samurai. And playing the AI on any game is usually a couple orders of magnitude less fun than playing a person, so, meh. With Through the Desert and it's crappy interface, that makes two of Knizia's greatest hits that were translated into iPhone misses.

First time playing Lost Cities and I love it so far. Easy to pick with quick tutorial, but lots of hidden depth to discover. And the silky smooth interface makes it a joy to play.

This us a fun game. Excellent graphics. Addictive. However, the placement if cards is just too close together for game play and discard. Over and over and over i try to place cards in game play only to have them discarded for opponent to pick up. Graphics make it look like its going into game play but it actually gets discarded. Or the opposite. I want to discard something but it goes into game play! I've lost multiple games because of these difficulties. Could be awesome but so far not worth the price. And why can't i still play cards after last card is drawn? What kind of card game doesn't let people play until they cant play anymore? Disappointed.

I'm a big fan of this game and have been awaiting an iOS version for a while. I'm happy to see it's as good as I expected from The Coding Monkeys, after their brilliant implementation of Carcassonne.

The one issue I have with the game is the interface: the discard area is between the player's hand and the playfield, making it easier to discard cards than to play them. This makes the inadvertent discarding of cards prevalent, at least in my early games. I'm sure I can avoid this through more cautious play and vigilant attention; however, due to the otherwise elegance of the interface, I wanted to draw this to your attention.

i don't know why everyone is raving over how beautiful the UI is. a predominate portion of the screen is taken up by the cards and they are all plain, just a color, no design at all, and dull. sum that up and they are just plain ugly. then, you slide them under something (what the &^%* is that?) and they turn up with some pattern on them that looks like someone's terrycloth bathrobe. that little smiley face thing looks totally out of place and those goofy AI caricatures are childish. the gameplay is NOT complicated so it's not like this app required coding genius to develop. but sure, it's not bad but it certainly is not the stellar presentation of a card/board game that most people here seem to be indicating.

Everything was done immaculately. Carcassonne has been my favorite app since it was released, so I was excited to see this. It is amazing- sound, graphics, UI, stats tracking, AI... Top to bottom polished and fun.

Please support stellar app development and buy this game!!!

From the coders of Carcassonne...this was an instabuy. So far it's a wonderfully done version of the game. I love that the tutorial has a spoken or written option. The rules are well laid out. The graphics are clean and pretty. I've only played for a bit and have enjoyed the few games I've run through.

My ONLY complaint is that this is an iPhone/iPod only version. I hit "buy" so fast...I didn't notice it was NOT universal (as Carcassonne is). I'm hoping that they'll transition this one to universal asap. That said - the graphics look pretty good on my new iPad even in 2x resolution. Not too grainy.