Rummikub Reviews

I have been playing this app the actual hands on game in my family for decades, we love it! It is fun makes you think and use strategies but this online game as MANY MANY others have pointed out is anything but fun! I have contacted the developer over 10 times about Rummikub stating “connectivity issues” which will freeze Rummikub , throw you out of a game losing what ever place you were in and now my biggest issue and concern is that when I have purchased coins to play my purchase is processed just fine apple and says the purchase is complete, I hit ok and Rummikub does nothing stating that it is “Processing purchase please be patient” only to have Rummikub shut down and when restarted my purchase is no where on my profile. I understand growing pains with such a popular game but today it happened again; so that makes it twice and my purchase is no where to be found! The customer support for Rummikub by the developer is useless and next to impossible to get any real response from. This first few or 20 times Rummikub stated there was connectivity issues and kicked me out of my game losing my round and coins used to enter it I emailed the developer and got a very stunted and rude reply of “this is what you get when playing an multiplayer virtual game”! I have reported Rummikub and developer to apple and caution anyone to not purchase anything from either the free or paid app until this developer gets their act together!!

So done with this game cheating!
Computerized players (and don’t tell me these players making 30 moves per 30 second turn aren’t a computer) should be limited in the number of moves it can make in a turn. The computer shouldn’t be able to make more than an actual human who has to think about what they’re doing can make in a turn. Algorithms put human players at a severe disadvantage.
Tiles I am in the process of dropping when the timer goes off end up being tossed back and all my moves undone, but yet other players can lay tiles down after I hear the timer for the end of their turn sound. I’ve lost games over this and it’s not fair play. And don’t try to say it’s a connection issue because it’s happened in multiple places, on different connections and happens to friends who play as well.
Special sound for giving someone a Joker should be stopped. It’s no one’s business who has the jokers or when they get them. The current rules do not say when a Joker has to be played by. If they did, the game could automatically prevent that player from making any other moves until they play it, but it doesn’t.
Players should not be allowed to arrange melds they don’t play on the make the board pretty. It’s called cheating. If one can’t play on a disorganized board, they should take up another game. You can’t move stuff when playing the table game, so same should go on the computerized version.

This is a favorite family game, but Rummikub is unfortunately such a money grab and could use some trouble shooting. First, there are so many ads! It forces you to watch for 30 seconds just to play a game -- on top of the "payment" of "coins" you have to buy, win, or (you guessed it) watch more ads for. Second, there are clearly problems w/ the "random" draws. Just playing a couple of games this evening and I've twice had to draw 28 or 29 times just to get an opening play. At that point, the game is literally over (since, w/ 4 players, you only have half a dozen tiles left to draw). Developers, please fix this! It would be so easy to tweak the algorithm to make it more likely that everyone at least has a chance to play the game after all that waiting. Just make it slightly more likely to draw something that will match w/ something in the hand already after the player has accumulated say 20 tiles.

The game is very good. Tiles are easy to see. A tap of a button arranges them in pairs or runs saving time on the clock. My biggest gripe is that when playing single player against the computer two thing consistently happen. The first and most irritating is that I will have two tiles and the computer 23. And the computer goes out and wins. This isn’t rare. It happens constantly. The latest game I had was down to the final move. I had both jokers and refused to play them. The computer was hoarding all the tiles and never making a move so I had nothing to play on. The last move it was able to make numerous moves a human isn’t capable of in 60 seconds. This is way too aggravating to be able to enjoy the game when you know every time the computer will hoard tiles till it can go out. I’ve begun leaving games till an actual human comes on to play. Which is rare. Another is that it seems to get stuck on a loop. Doing the same moves over and over again then taking them back. I’ve often thought of leaving the game because it’s just stuck. Maybe five or eight times later it finally completes a move.

This game does not allow you to play for the whole time allotted to you. When you have about two or three seconds left of your turn, you can no longer interact with the board. This is not just a fluke. This is happened at least 10 or 15 times to me. There have been so many times I could’ve one if I’ve been allowed to use my full turn. Also I’ve noticed sometimes my opponent is not cut off a few seconds early.

I love this game, but there needs to be an option to play without jokers. Opponents hold jokers till their very last move, which while being within the rules is so far against the spirit of the game. This is meant to be a game of skill and having a magic joker that you hoard guarantees a win by default, and this turns into a game of luck rather than skill.

I recognize that there is no rule against this, but playing an opponent who hoards one or both jokers is so frustrating, as like I said it negates the spirit of the game. I understand some prefer to play this way, so if an setting existed to play without jokers, we could both enjoy Rummikub more

UPDATE: UGH!!! The cheating I mentioned in my first review is becoming much more rampant. I’m starting to wonder if these people think that this is how this game is actually supposed to be played?! Whether it’s cheating or people think that’s how it’s played, what’s the fun in that? It’s no fun to play people who save the Wild tiles until the very last round to ensure that they win. This would never happen in an in-person game. It’s become so common now that I no longer wish to play Rummikub. So sad as I really love this game.
—————————————————————————————————-
Possible solutions - Remind players that that’s not how this is played. Allow players to block players who choose to play this way. Otherwise, I won’t come back. Deleting Rummikub now. Feel free to respond to this review if you make these changes.
—————————————————————————————————-
I love this app, have been playing the in-person game for years. This game is well done, no issues, except that I’d love an option to opt out of ads, such as paying 3.99 or something. Also, it’s easy to cheat, with no repercussions whatsoever. Twice in a row just now, 2 different players saved their joker tiles for their very last play in order to win. Ugh. In a real life game, they’d totally get called out on that and would not be allowed to win. This is an extremely frustrating part of the game and I don’t know how it can be remedied. Surely there must be a way though?

As far as design, I really suggest they fix the issue with the logo/trademark bar located at the bottom of the screen. It overlaps with the bottom row of tiles which jeopardizes your game play. It’s practically unavoidable to hit the logo, and doing so takes time off your turn.
Speaking of time, Play Now turns are only 15 seconds long, which is an unreasonably short amount of time. They should allow the player to choose how many seconds are given per turn (an option that is provided in Practice mode), or at the very least increase the length of time allotted per turn from 15 seconds to 30.
This is more of an opinion and an issue I have with Rummikub : The Play Now games really feel designed to put you as the player at a big disadvantage. Too often do I find myself in positions where I have 25 or more tiles on my board and still haven’t drawn the tiles needed for the initial play (30 points). Meanwhile, the other players are down to 7 or less tiles. Sure, you can sometimes have that level of bad luck but if the distribution of tiles during game play were truly randomized, that would not happen as often as it does.
It feels like a cheap ploy designed to leave you without any coins, essentially forcing you to either purchase coins to continue playing or wait at least 24 hrs before you’re able to collect “free coins”.

I love this app (the original tile game), and have been playing this version for quite a while. The rules are different, which is okay as long as you know that.

My huge complaint is that apparently if there aren’t enough live players to quickly form a game, the computer steps in and plays. I can tell because there is no possible way a human could put tiles down that fast! The tiles are fidgety, and often don’t want to stay where I (and other live players) put them; they jump around for no apparent reason, and often don’t connect up with the tiles they’re placed with. That’s super frustrating. However when the computer plays, they always go right in place, one after the other, nonstop during that turn. Moreover, I’ve seen the computer play two sets of three tiles AT THE SAME TIME - that is not possible for a person!

That all gives the computer’s player a huge advantage, as it can play far more tiles within the allotted time. Basically if that happens, there’s little chance a real person can win.

If they need to have the computer step in and play sometimes, they should at least slow it down so it doesn’t have such a huge advantage.

Also I now seem to be mainly put in games with people who are far above my experience level. But even that isn’t as bad as when the computer plays!

I don’t love this computerized version. Why?

1. Playing mostly bots is frustrating. It’s obvious when tiles are played at lightning speed.

2. The timer shows I still have time to place tiles. Yet even during the timer countdown, I can’t make a move so even if only one tile is not placed, all of my moves are returned to my tray. It should be just that one tile! Like in the real board game. When playing the real game, you don’t have to pick up all your tiles you’ve just placed because you can’t place the last one you’re trying to play!

3. Players hold the jokers to play their last move to win. That’s cheating. Shouldn’t be allowed. Either take away jokers altogether, or make it not possible to play the last move using a joker. Easy fix.

4. But please please PLEASE fix your board to not allow tiles to jump around as you’re rearranging tiles and making moves. On more than one occasion I’ve lost a game because the “board is invalid” only to realize two tiles had jumped away from the grouping and I didn’t see it. The tiles should not jump around like that. Very annoying!

Last point: some players are there to troll. They like to just collect tiles until the pile is depleted, frustrating other players who can’t make moves and the winner is by default (least points in their hand). Those players should be kicked out when it’s clear they can make moves but aren’t.

A friend showed me this game and I’ve enjoyed learning it. Everything I great but multiple times in the last two weeks I’ve gone through an entire game without the ability to play a tile because I did not have to initial 30 point move. It is very frustrating that this happens, but to have happened multiple times within a short period of time makes it not fun to play. One literally sits there and watches everyone play tiles for an entire game, round after round. It’s to a point that I don’t know if I’ll continue playing anymore. Sad because the game is fun when this doesn’t happen.

Another thing I would change would be the ability for players to hit the “make a move”button. There are some players that constantly hit it on everyone’s turn and it becomes increasingly annoying. That should be limited because it takes away the fun. My favorite games is Words With Friends. They don’t allow this.

I’m playing this game on an iPhone 12 pro max, and the very same spot that you have to swipe up to exit the game also starts a new game. I have lost countless games that I joined without realizing I did because I was actually trying to exit Rummikub . At the very least, they could position the exit bar on the top side instead of the bottom side of the screen where the play button falls. Massive design fail. My other gripe is the fact that if you’ve played this game long enough, you come to realize that the game lets you get hot for very extended stretches, and then murders you for the same stretch in the opposite direction. There is no randomness to the assignment of wild cards. You’ll play 20 games where you get both of them and then you won’t see one again for 30. Randomizing this a bit more would make game play much more enjoyable.

I really like this game. It is challenging and very addictive. I do have a few problems with it.
1. It costs money to play. You get free coins, you can buy more, and you when coins when win your game.
2. There is a buy in on each game and the more coins you have the higher the buy in. The only way to pick the buy in amount is if you create your own game. I’ve tried this and it snagged and I was never able to play the game I created.
3. It is nearly impossible to win. You play against other people (not sure about all but most) but it seems that the higher the buy the higher my chances of losing. I won more when I had fewer coins and the buy in was $100 than when I bought coins and the buy in jumped to $1000. Buy in was $100 I would win maybe 1 in 5. When the buy in is $500 or $1000 I’m lucky if I win 1 in 10. It seems completely disproportionate.

Ok, overall this is fun to play. However, I cannot believe how many ads there are.. Every time I switch I switch a screen or between every single game another ad comes out. It gets very frustrating. I understand they need to run them, but I’ve never ran into a game that had this many before before.

Also, I got a little frustrated at one point. I was playing multiple games with the hundred coin entrance fee. And I decided to buy some coins, did not change any of my settings, and the next game I played, was preset for 500 coins with no notification. So I had to play that game. So I don’t even want to click on play again. I just go into the custom games.

Also, sometimes I really feel the computer is playing instead of individuals. Some of the moves are way too fast in the matter of 1 1/2 to 2 seconds for it to be an individual to be moving the tiles so fast, way too fast for an individual.

Rummikub itself is pretty good, I like that I can play this app online with my fam for free. (The only thing that really bugs me about Rummikub itself is how it’s difficult not to close the screen and disconnect from the match whenever you take one of the tiles from your bottom row).

What really bothers me is always playing with bots outside of private matches. And I don’t mean the ones that take over after someone quits out of a game, that’s understandable. I mean the ones that are bots from the start of a match, they usually show up when playing custom games. Always moving tiles at superhuman speed and making 10+ manipulations in a 15-second turn and putting 8 tiles down at once. I wouldn’t mind waiting longer for other human players to join a match if it meant no more bots. If not, it would be great to have a little note next to each bot so I know from the start and can quit out of the match. It just isn’t fun.

This game could be 5 star if it weren’t for the glitches. Mid game I get kicked because of “connectivity issues”. If I’m lucky I get to stay in the game and miss a few turns. I received a message after a glitch that I was kicked due to not moving for two turns, but I’ve been in games where a person hasn’t made a move for about 3 turns and they don’t get kicked. In addition sometimes my pieces magically jump off the board and I have to replace them. If I’m lucky only some of them come off. The real kicker is when a players clock reaches 0 and stays there; sometimes the clock will start over. Playing on the iPhone is annoying because taking a piece from the bottom of the board will trigger the menu sliding up. Other than the above glitches, playing against the computer hasn’t been an issue and you won’t have people sending you angry faces and asking you to make a move when it’s out of your control.

I’ve been playing this for some time and although I think my level dropped after doing an update I still played. Overall it’s the best rummy tile game out there.
My gripe may have to do with the latest update offered. I did not choose this one because of the reviews pointing out that it simplifies the game by sorting tiles for players for best play. I do not want this, as it steers away too far from how you would play at home. So I avoided the update. However ever since the game on my tablet refuses to open fully. I get the first screen then three seconds later it blinks out. This is new and I know it’s not my tablet causing it to crash, I suspect it’s not opening because it requires me to play with the new update. So sadly I delete it.
Please stop simplifying the game. If a player can’t sort his own tiles or see the best play that’s his problem, not yours to watch over his or her shoulder and suggest them. At least have an off option for those like me who hated seeing my tiles auto sort by runs or sets. I think I am capable of doing that myself.

Still having the same major problem with Rummikub, which that it allows players to mis-use a joker tile that has been previously played to get an unfair advantage — i.e., to CHEAT! Others have complained about players holding on to jokers until the end (which is also bad for the game), but I can understand not wanting to play your joker tiles with the way Rummikub allows others to rampantly break the rules in order to win!

Rules clearly state that a joker tile must first be REPLACED by a player’s previously unplayed tile that satisfies the same meld, followed by the same player using other previously unplayed tiles to form a NEW meld with the joker. In reality on Rummikub, the rule is being properly followed less than 10% of the time. Players actually following the rules and not abusing the jokers are almost guaranteed to lose every time. I was still hopeful that the developers would fix this glaring problem, but it seems that will never happen. It’s a shame because otherwise it’s a great app with fun online game play against other players at the same skill level…… when they’re not cheating.

Reading reviews and I am confused. Do people really think playing an APP game is going to be the same as with people? First I have been playing Rummikub on and off since it’s inception. It is way better!! I did like being able to opt for different times, only 30 sec can be tough but makes the game different, more exciting. Also I prefer the computer taking over for lost players. I don’t notice it playing better, sometimes I lose sometimes I win. I just like playing. Yes, it steals coins sometimes, yes it glitches, yes it only lets me play 500 cost sometimes, yes there are ads.... hello it is FREE. Running out of money? let it run ads and you will have plenty... I usually win enough that I have plenty to play a few games each day. If someone starts poking for me to play fast, I can ignore them, because it is an APP. Relax, enjoy and have some fun people!

Great game, seems to pretty accurately recreate the experience of playing this app. I agree with a lot of the things mentioned in other reviews... sometimes it does seem unrealistically and disproportionately difficult to win, but I guess that could just be random. The ads can be annoying but hey, it IS free. Biggest problem though — and the entire reason I’m writing this review — is the bottom of the tile rack is too close to the iPhone swipe area. Every time it interrupts my timed turn, it feels incredibly unfair, and trying to be extra careful to avoid it happening is a waste of precious time. There has to be some way around this. Please figure out a way to not have the rack so close to that area so when I try to swipe tiles, I can do it with confidence that I’m not going to exit the game and mess up my turn. Other than that though, the game is fun and a pleasure to play. Thanks!

Fun to play. However, I hate it when I accidentally swipe up or down, which brings me out of the game and shows a pop-up that says ‘resuming the game’ when I return. The reconnection takes so long that when I come back, either my turn is already over or I’m out of the game because there have been two rounds of the game while I was reconnecting. Here are some things to suggest: 1) please fix the above mentioned reconnection issues, 2) move the board tiles a little bit up so they don’t overlap with the bar in the bottom for iphone users, and 3) make some empty space at the top so players are not at risk of bringing the notifications bar when they try to make a move with a tile located at the top

1: There’s not enough time to leave a game before it starts without losing tokens. I don’t like joining games with a 500 token fee! I try to leave as fast as possible, but I still lose tokens often. I see two options: 1. Increase the time to join to allow people enough time to leave once they see the join fee, or 2: give people the option before joining. For example, after clicking Play Now we could have the option of joining a 100 token fee game, a 500 token fee, or whatever other fee levels are available at the moment.

2: Having ALL the tiles removed from the board if even one tile is out of place. Only invalid tiles should be returned. It’s maddening playing a bunch of tiles, trying to place the last tile only for it to not go into place for some reason (the play mechanics aren’t perfect for tile placement), having the timer run out, and then ALL the pieces being returned despite the one tile out of place being from my hand and could easily be returned to my hand while leaving a valid board.

3: This doesn’t affect my enjoyment of the game, but I would like to have more time increments when making a custom game. Increments in 5s, 10s, or even 15s would be preferable to 30s.

It’s a fun game with the classic graphics so I gave it 4. but I don’t know why it doesn’t let you decide how much to bet. Sometimes you have a lot of coins and it bets the minimum. Other times you maybe don’t feel you want to risk half your coins on a big bet and it does it anyway. Second problem is that on iPad the emoticons your opponents make cover up the top of the screen so they maybe are trying to hurry you but it makes it harder to finish if they block the tiles repeatedly. Unless it’s meant to let you do that as a strategy to mess someone up from seeing the screen. Once in a while my screen didn’t move the pieces where I did it or ended my turn by misregistering my moves. And last criticism is that the ads it forces you to watch before you can play the next game sometimes are 5 seconds , 30 sec , none requires and other times they freeze and you have to exit the game and restart.

I love this game. I love the original, so I was excited to find it! The only thing that is tempting me to delete it is- I only play custom games, 30 seconds is not enough time for me. But as soon as someone leaves, the computer takes over and changes the whole board and usually goes out 1-2 turns. Maybe we could just disqualify that person and throw the tiles back in or something. It pretty much disregards the “win stats” as you advertise since you’re not playing a human. It’s pretty much every time someone leaves the game, the whole game is over anyways.

I did see someone else mention the set up for iPhone. It’s kind of a pain when you try to move tiles closer to your board, it says you’re trying to put them back on your board and if you click to high it pulls down notifications and has to reload. However, it’s a small inconvenience I can work with!

I love playing this app with friends and I was very excited when I found Rummikub. Because I like playing on my own time I choose the Practice game, which is against the computer rather than against live people. That way if I have to leave in the middle of a game or get interrupted I can close it and reopen it at my convenience. To play any game you need coins. I initially bought coins for $2.99, but even in the Practice mode you can earn more coins by watching videos or winning so many points. I don’t feel that I will need to purchase coins again. Twice when something didn’t work quite right I contacted Customer Support and both times got an immediate response and they quickly resolved the issue. Sometimes the game seems to lock up (where it’s stuck on one of the players), but I usually exit the game and come back in and it gets resolved. This game is very close to the real thing, although when I play with friends we have stricter rules.

I watched so many adds to collect enough coins to enter the tournaments. Right now I’m at 2,100,000 coins. My first Tournament was like 5,000 coins to enter and I tried to stay on the top 10 won 8 th place and won 80,000 coins I notice instead of getting 100 coins by playing the add I was getting 1, 000. Then went on my second tournament. Entry fee was 50,000 coins so I went for it stayed in the top 10 won 7th place and it gave me 800,000 coins and now by watching adds it’s giving me 10,000 coins per add. Some ads are only 5 seconds, how amazing it’s that. I think it’s better playing tournaments because even though if someone leaves the game and a robot continues and wins …I notice who ever won the second place gets the win. I went for the third tournament too late and I’m not even close to any the top places. But the win it’s now 5 million coins. I’m still watching ads and I’m up to 2.1 million coins. I love tournaments more because you don’t loose all your coins. The only thing I don’t like it’s when players don’t have a move at the beginning of the game and take the whole 30 seconds and do nothing it’s frustrating. Sometimes you get 3 out of the 4 playeras doing the same thing. And it gets boring. I love when all of us players love the tiles fast. It’s more exciting.

The beauty of Rummikub is that unlike the physical game, you get the chance to throw caution to the wind and try different melds & strategies. And if they don’t work, just hit the undo button and try something else! I bumped up my practice sessions to allow 2 full minutes to play my tiles, and only wish you could increase it to 3 minutes or more. I also wish there was a way to slow down the laying of your opponents’ tiles during practice sessions, and maybe even see your opponents’ tiles, for better learning opportunities, even if it meant you would forgo any points being earned. Lastly, it would be great if the practice games had a “hint” option or maybe a “coach” mode so you could see if you have a viable move to make or not, something as simple as highlighting a playable tile. As you might guess, I’m using Rummikub to make myself a better player when I play the physical game using tiles. One small complaint is that I’ve experienced an advertisement that I couldn’t close so I’ve had to force close Rummikub . But overall, great app!