I’m a big fan of Ludo… and I don’t mean the band. I remember distinctly playing the game every year at Easter when I was a child, when I would spend a week away from school and my parents wouldn’t be at work. I would also play it on holiday, every night before me and my sister would go to bed – I just remember it being so much fun.

You can imagine my excitement when I found out about Ludo PlaySpace – an iPhone and iPad version of the beloved board game that I cherished through my childhood. It’s a freemium game, like many of these digital board games are – basically what that means is that there are optional micro-transactions within the game, but they definitely don’t ruin the experience.

At first it was an odd experience without the cold touch of the dice and counters, but I quickly got familiar with doing everything on screen. But that wasn’t the main thing that was different, what struck out was the fact that I was playing with complete strangers – people I had never met and probably would never meet. It was surreal, being connected to other people – and I would sometimes doubt that I was actually playing real people.

The best experience I had with Ludo PlaySpace was playing with my friends on Facebook, of course that was after I had convinced them to download the app – which didn’t take long since they liked Ludo, too. My sister even joined me for a game, which was great… until she won.

The thrill of the chase was the same, watching as somebody would roll the die, hoping that I wouldn’t be unfortunate enough to be landed upon. Then, it would be my turn to roll, hoping that I would be fortunate enough to land on that pesky counter in-front of me. It’s a great experience, and it definitely doesn’t lack the social element that would bring Ludo to life.

There are apparently over 5 million players, which I don’t doubt. Obviously, it felt much more hostile when I was playing with strangers – but that’s to be expected… right? My sister became a weekly winner and won some awesome prizes – but I cannot lie: she was always a better player than me.

Overall, I think PlaySpace did a fantastic job on their Ludo game, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to more of my friends. I think they have fine-tuned the experience enough to call it a worthy successor to its physical counterpart. Nothing will beat those rainy Easter days when I would play with my family, but that’s a different experience altogether – this is for adults, not for kids before their bedtime – it makes so much sense to turn board games digital – because it’s one of the last things we have that isn’t plagued by flashy lights and new innovations – in plain terms: it’s the future. You can download the App for FREE from the App Store and Google Play.

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