# Extreme 500 — user reviews > 116 indexed App Store user reviews of Extreme 500 by James Swiney, rated 4.40/5 from 576 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/extreme-500/id775846912/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/extreme-500/id775846912.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 375 · 4★ 114 · 3★ 47 · 2★ 21 · 1★ 19 ## What do users think of Extreme 500? Overall sentiment: neutral **Pros** - 🚀 Great game - 🕹️ Enjoyable gameplay - 🕹️ Good practice for playing - 🕹️ Realistic game play **Cons** - 🐛 Scoring issues - 🐛 Misere bid issues - 🐛 Partner plays suboptimally - 🔍 Small card size - 🔀 Difficulty rearranging cards - 🕹️ Predictable AI - 🕹️ Unbalanced dealing **Commonly reported bugs** - Cards disappearing from screen - No-trump bid not working properly - Misere bid overriding higher bids - Incorrect scoring for misere **Most requested features** - Online/multiplayer mode - Customizable settings (e.g. speed, sound) - Ability to sort cards into suits - Improved partner AI - Scoring/bidding clarifications - Support for additional 500 variants (e.g. open misere) ## Newest reviews (19 of 116) ### 4/5 — Bad bidding *2026-04-29, version 3.8* Could never make a bid! ### 2/5 — Letter Grade Stupid *2025-04-04, version 3.8* Game is okay playing partners for an app anyway. Way too may unbidable hands. It’s like the randomization that substitutes for a shuffle is too good. Played thousands of games over the last 60 years and I’ve never had a game where ten hands delt with no biddable cards. This letter grade business incredibly annoying and 100% unnecessary. For a game I had to pay for…it could be a lot better. ### 3/5 — Sus dealing *2025-01-29, version 3.8* Admittedly the sample size is small, I’ve only played around 25 hands so far. But of those 25 hands I’ve only had about 3 worth even thinking about bidding on, normally I get hand that has a few of each suit but not a lot of any one of them. Meanwhile 80% of the time the AI bids 7 or 8 wins and easily gets them because they have 8 or 9 of a single suit and another ace or two for good measure. I hope I can come back and change this and it really just is the small sample size because this is no fun. Edit: I think I originally wrote this years ago. I still play the game from time to time in order to pass the time, but overall I think my review up top is pretty accurate. The sample size is now a few hundred, so still not massive but more than most people will play the game I reckon. 90% of the time I’m dealt 2 cards in 2 suits and 3 cards in the other 2. It’s incredibly rare to get a hand worth bidding on. Every deal seems to be perfectly average for the player. However, the ai seems to end up with 7+ cards in the same suit AT LEAST every second round. At least this is your partner as often as your 2 opponents. But it leaves me playing very passively. On the other hand, sometimes your partner will make a bid and it matches what’s in your own hand so you might overbid them, especially if the cpu made a larger bid in between. You’re just as likely to find out the opponent players actually held more of the suit than your partner made a bid for, setting you up for massive failure. I got baited into this after being forced to pass about 20 hands in a row. So yea, not a bad way to waste 30 mins whilst on a train or something, especially if you don’t play too often. But the dealing is incredibly suspicious and stacked against the player and you quickly start realising the games shortcomings the more you play. ### 2/5 — Repetitive game play *2025-01-04, version 3.8* Clunky app. Personalised rule changes don’t even get applied to the game. After several games, the algorithm became extremely predictable and completely frustrating. Lame. Would love a refund. ### 3/5 — Not a real good 500 player *2024-08-05, version 3.8* You never lead the joker first when you make it no trumps, you save it so you can get back in the game. You never play top card when your partner leads, when you have smaller trumps, it makes your partner think you have no more trumps. You also don’t call 7 of the same trump when the opponent before you calls 6, it’s quite obvious the person who developed this app a very poor 500player. Please tweak this game to make it better. Also once opponents are out of trumps, play your suit instead of playing trumps and robbing your partner of all his trumps, but appears you haven’t tried to correct anything so don’t see anything happening to make it better. When your partner has the trick, and you are the last player never take it when you have a smaller trump in your hand absolutely has no idea how to play 500. Fix it. Whoever done this App doesn’t know a thing about 500 why would you play the right bower on the Joker when you have a smaller trump in your hand. Your partner doesn’t take your trick with the joker after player one card in no trumps is played as you usually have a run down in one suit and cannot get back in. Please fix these mistakes I could scream poor poor player. Stop draining your partner for trumps when opposition has no trumps left use your suit, even if not good your partner may not have that suit and take it with a trump, sorry mate you haven’t played much 500. You don’t make 8 when you are only holding 5 trumps, you know nothing about this game your hopeless, and the people on here saying what a great game never played tournament 500. I give you1 out of 10. ### 3/5 — Predictable *2024-01-03, version 3.8* I can always tell what suit others are going to bid in when I have only one card in an entire suit. Happens more time than not. ### 4/5 — Cross ruff *2023-12-13, version 3.8* Pretty good game but could use some improvements in partner bidding and play in the 4 player game. Get him to stop pulling trump as soon as the opponents are out, then play winners in other suits down to a loser in a suit other than trump. The opponents play against misere bids needs improvements. I win about 90% of games, should be more challenging. ### 4/5 — Good, but….. *2023-01-03, version 3.7* Won’t let me change type of 500 Vjsggeez ### 2/5 — Moving and pick pile *2022-06-21, version 3.7* I am still unhappy I cannot move my cards around before I bid. I like to put my cards in the order I want to see them to bid. The only time you can move cards is if you take the bid. I have not played the actual card game with friends for quite a while. Rather than 3 cards to change when you get the bid, I thought it was 5. Hope you can change these things because I love playing the game. I like the new changes you have made to show bids on the table. Why doesn’t your player give you 3 of her cards when Nelly or misere is bid? That is what happens in the real game ### 4/5 — Bidding *2022-04-20, version 3.7* I want to know why if someone bids 8 spades for 240 points, and I bid no tricks for 250 points it gives the bid to the 8 spades bid even though no tricks is a higher bid. Thanks PM ### 4/5 — Solid game with errors *2022-02-19, version 3.7* While there are issues (original scoring is wrong, misere bid by opponents locks game after first hand, etc.), it’s still an enjoyable version of the game. ### 2/5 — Partner doesn’t play to win *2021-12-27, version 3.7* The computer partner does not play to win. I can not figure out why it plays the cards it does at times. For example the other team leads with a joker, computer partner plays the right bower. The opponent then plays the left bower and the computer partner plays a queen of trump. We could have won a trick if played the other way around. Seems like doesn’t play lowest card if can’t take the trick. ### 3/5 — Extreme 500 , game flaws *2021-09-16, version 3.6* Please fix the app so the partner does not come back immediately with a joker when playing a no thump hand. Very annoying to bid no trump and have a hand full of a suit and then have the partner put a joker on it taking the trick. There is no way to get back into the bidder’s hand when this is done. PLEASE FIX THIS FLAW! Thank you ### 4/5 — Couple of basic fixes would make it amazing! *2021-08-24, version 3.6* Great game. Have noticed a few bugs in the ‘partners’ game play though: 1. They bid more tricks then is needed to win the game - if we only need 6 spades to win (and no-one else calls), why does the partner often call 7 or even 8 (which he almost always loses!). 2. The partner doesn’t seem to recognise the Jack’s as being bowers when he doesn’t have the lead / call. He plays them below the queen - this is frustrating when he could win a trick by playing the Jack, but plays a queen or king instead (losing the hand…). I often play multiple games without the partner making a call at all. Any way of setting the partners risk level / appetite would be awesome too. These are minor points, this is an awesome game. Thanks! ### 3/5 — Play is ok but with bugs *2021-04-06, version 3.5* 1. Option that requires winning contract to win game doesn’t seem to work. I won my bid but the opponent reached 500 in points and was declared the winner. 2. Winning Misere does not credit me with an achievement. 3. Would like to see score persist on all screens. When I have the bid window there’s no indication of current score. 4. Would love to see win/loss record and other stats. ### 3/5 — Sus dealing *2021-04-03* Admittedly the sample size is small, I’ve only played around 25 hands so far. But of those 25 hands I’ve only had about 3 worth even thinking about bidding on, normally I get hand that has a few of each suit but not a lot of any one of them. Meanwhile 80% of the time the AI bids 7 or 8 wins and easily gets them because they have 8 or 9 of a single suit and another ace or two for good measure. I hope I can come back and change this and it really just is the small sample size because this is no fun. ### 4/5 — Good game with some minor, but frustrating, issues *2021-04-03, version 3.5* I LOVE this game and definitely appreciate the app. However, the computer sometimes makes plays that would make no sense in real life.... 1. Computer will lead off a new hand with off suit aces instead of playing the joker first to start to draw trump out. 2. When opposing team is obviously out of trump, computer/partner will pull me out of trump even when there are boss suit plays (they have an off suit ace, off suit king is good, etc). This happens even when it is shown/known opposite team is out of trump (not just because of the card/trump counts). 3. There are lots of issues where no trump or misere is called. Partner will use joker on my ace (messing up a run) or will use joker instead of throwing off on a misere defense. I’ve been trying to particularly practice those types of hands so I can play better the next time I play with my family and it’s hard to hone tactics when the computer will make bad plays. ### 3/5 — Decent *2020-12-24, version 3.5* Game mechanics work fine. Half the achievements do not trigger. Glitchy when you navigate away from the game and back. ### 4/5 — Best 500 game but..... *2020-11-29, version 3.5* Love the game and play a lot. It is the best 500 bid game I’ve found. However there’s a couple of things that need fixed in the algorithm. Computer players can bid Misare (we always called it Nello), even when it’s a lower bid than my bid. No matter what I bid, if one of the computer players bids misare they get the bid. Also, would like to see your computer partner not play the joker on No Trump when I play an ace. Happens all the time on No Trump. Those are the 2 biggest flaws that I have found. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Don’t buy *2026-07-02, version 3.8* Wish I could get my money back. Gameplay is terrible. When you win bid, kitty stays in middle and you have to switch out one card at a time (instead of the kitty going into your hand and discarding cards). Even worse, when you switch each individual card it isn’t sorted by suit. Also, you can either choose playing a 6 bid or not playing a 6 bid. There is no inkling. Most basic features available in all the other free apps aren’t even available with a paid app. Don’t waste your money. ### 1/5 — Deleted *2023-09-29, version 3.8* Whilst I really enjoyed the game I found on my iPhone I couldn’t shut it off which was really frustrating. Also on the iPhone some of the cards are hidden by the black cut out in the iPhone 13. I literally had to turn my phone off to get out of this app. ### 1/5 — Do not buy this! *2022-10-23, version 3.7* Doesn’t fit screen, old graphics. Hard to see cards, can only play in landscape. Terrible for the price compared to other free versions ### 1/5 — Better than most but extremely glitchy *2022-08-07, version 3.7* I don’t know who wrote this program but they obviously have no understanding of how to play it. All my comments are with me playing the computer only. The programmer has no comprehension as to how to make bids. For example we may only need 10-30 points and the opponent is way behind, and they both have passed, so logically you would at most make a 6 bid to win the game. But not this programmer he has my so called partner bid 8 and then really didn’t have the cards to bid even 6. Then as previously stated in a review my partner will play a card that the hand is already mine and then cause us to be set. It is very frustrating playing this game with the programmers total lack of understanding on how to play cards!!! I would recommend this game only if you are going to play online and then that brings another total set in illogical programming idiotic things. ### 1/5 — Questions *2021-07-22, version 3.6* Are there any real people that play against each other. All I’m seeing is a computer partners on both sides. The computer takes all the good cards and leaves crappy ones for me like almost every hand. That’s not right. I paid money for this game. It’s not even a challenge if computer going to win all the time ### 1/5 — Needs fixing *2021-04-01, version 3.5* There are some serious issues with the algorithm. No-Trump: The joker is always played by the computer players when you play a spade. You can play the ace of spades and even your partner will take the trick with the joker! (Not how it should happen). It goes vis versa as well—you play the joker and everyone else plays a spade if they have one. Oh, and the opponents won’t play the joker until the last card, if you happen to not play a spade in the round. There are other quirks as well, but I don’t have the time to get into it. If you play this app too often, you might forget how to play in real life. ### 1/5 — warren *2021-01-13, version 3.5* Major problem when playing no trumps. When you lead ace, partner uses joker when still has cards in that suits. In effect partner puts you down. ### 1/5 — Fixed *2021-01-11, version 3.5* This game is not worth playing. Cards are always generated in favor of the “house”. Don’t waste your time ### 1/5 — Save your money *2020-01-22, version 3.3* I love the game of 500, but I hate honestly playing this application. My partner (computer) doesn’t understand the concept of not playing highest card, if I already am winning the round. Especially, when he comes back out in the same suit with a smaller card, then loses. Not to mention, the other team ALWAYS seems to beat my “ace” (not trump), with trump, because they never have an off suit. Same with the joker. They ALWAYS have the joker.. every single time. Just frustrating. Same crap every game. Don’t get this application. Save your money and just play with friends. ### 1/5 — Bad Computer *2020-01-19, version 3.2* The computer partner is too frustrating. It is programmed to lead with an off suite ace (which is fine) or/then play its highest trump card. This means you start losing your trumps straight away or the opponents joker it, stealing a bower. Also the setting to stop a team winning without winning the bid is broken Finally, no auto sorting the hands and sometimes the cards hitter and auto play e.g. click on the joker to sort it and it suddenly plays it :/ Thankfully no adds or I would have reversed my charge for the app. I would like to see it fixed though as I love the simple design ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — What do the ratings mean? *2025-09-09, version 3.8* Great game. I play it just about every night. One thing I can’t figure out - what do the ratings mean? I just came back from -490 to win, and got an “S”? What does that stand for? Or I’ll take 10 tricks (“slam”), then win a misare for 500 points in 2 hands and get a “B”?… 😅 ### 5/5 — Doesn’t keep hand sorted. Hard to read. *2020-12-09, version 3.5* I had a fabulous 500 game on old phone. Very clear to see. Hand always sorted I thought this would be good. But I find it hard to remember what’s in my hand Because cards keep getting out of their suits. Even getting kitty cards don’t go in their suits. Joker and Jacks should line up with rest of trumps once auction won. Also difficult to play a card ( dragging into the square isn’t seedless) I hope future upgrades will improve this game. And Then I will improve my rating ### 5/5 — Ratings *2020-11-22, version 3.5* I am interested to know what the S, A, B and F ratings mean. Love the game. ### 5/5 — Extreme 500 *2020-11-18, version 3.5* Love playing to hone my skills! ### 5/5 — 500 *2020-11-13, version 3.5* We find that the computer wins most of the bids, eg out of 6 hands dealt haven’t yet won a bid... gets a bit repetitive and boring. Pity. And sorting the cards in your deck needs to happen in order. ### 5/5 — Overall great; could use minor tweaks *2020-09-28, version 3.4* Excellent AI, and the computer makes fewer mistakes than the mugs I play with in real life. A couple minor changes would be really nice, in order of most wanted: 1) auto ordering cards in my hand. 2) when deciding which cards to pick from the kitty, I can’t manually order cards. 3) allow 6 bids to be called but not played (inkle bid) 4) puts some smarts behind previously-played cards. For example, if I’m the only one with hearts left and pulling in tricks, don’t have my partner trump that run. ### 5/5 — Works well, addicting *2020-05-03, version 3.3* Great to play and very addicting. The “Must win call to win the game” feature isn’t working properly for me. Only wish is for online support, otherwise great game! ### 5/5 — Fabulous version of classic card game *2020-01-06, version 3.2* Lots to like and I very much enjoy playing. However would love the software to bid misere occasionally and some improvements to how the bot plays against a no trumps bid by using the joker correctly. Room for improvement but still great ### 5/5 — Great fun *2019-12-29, version 3.2* Good practice for playing. Had not played in years and this is helpful for bidding and score. Worth the price. ### 5/5 — Missing a few features, but overall awesome ! *2019-12-23, version 3.2* Would only love the option to play with both jokers and an option to “checkmark” before moving to next mark, in order to have a chance to look over the played cards. Obviously online/local multiplayer would be amazing ! --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-03.*