Finblade has provided a free version of their popular word puzzle game, WordSearch ($1.99), in the form of the holiday-themed Halloween WordSearch (Free). This version contains these features:
If you enjoy this free Halloween version, you’ll likely enjoy the full version of WordSearch ($1.99) which offers a lot more features and gameplay.
For a limited time only, Word Up! (Free) will be free in the App Store, the original price is $2.99. Word Up! is a word puzzle game inspired by Wordsmith, a game found on the TiVo Series 3 DVR. The developer has a Mac/PC version, that is also free, available on their website.
Form words of 3 or more letters using letter tiles. You can use only the tiles in the first row of the board, but each time you use a tile, the tiles underneath it move up and the new top tile becomes available.
The game will end automatically when there are no words left. If you’re still playing, then there are words left, though they might be very obscure. If you get tired of guessing, Tap Menu and then New Game to give up on the current game and start a new one.
When the game ends, if your score is in the top ten, then you will be prompted to enter your name for the top score list.
Imangi Studios just let us know that they’ve put Imangi ($0.99) on sale for 99 cents, originally the game sells for $3.99. In our review of Imangi, we find the multiple gameplay modes, polished visuals, and cerebral gameplay to make it one of the best word puzzle games available in the App Store today.
Imangi features:
Imangi Studios just recently announced a new game they’ve submitted to the App Store, called Imangi Word Squares.
Wordabble is another word game in a long list of word games available already in the App Store. What differentiate it from the others is the ability to see what words are available on the board, which ones you’ve managed to solve and which you’ve missed, and provides hint. So not only does it test your vocabulary and spatial reasoning abilities, but it also helps you learn words you don’t know yet.
To solve words on the board, you tap each letter in the order required to form a word. The letters have to be next to each other, but can be chosen in any direction. Once a word is formed, you tap the green plus arrow to submit it, and if it’s not a valid word (all words have to be 4-letters or longer) then you can tap the red minus button to clear the word.
There are three different game types to choose from. Puzzle of the Day for competitive online play (email account required in settings), Marathon for unlimited time to solve words, and Timed to test your skill against a set amount of time which you can also set in the settings.
In-game instructions are provided to learn how to play Wordabble. The menu is always on the bottom of the screen, and consists of Home, Game, Solved, and Help. Home is where you can end a game and submit the score you’ve accumulated so far. Game is where you play the game. Solved are the list of words you’ve discovered up to that point in a game. Help is the hint screen that helps you out if you’re stumped. These series of menus are speedy, polished, and well-thought out.
The settings can be found in the iPhone/iPod Touch’s main settings panel. You can change the tile’s colors, the text’s color from black or white, the timed length game from 1 minute all the way up to 20 minutes. You can also enter an email account for uploading and tracking of your scores.
Visually the game is smooth and looks good. Text is easy to read, everything is well laid out, and the ability to change the tiles to a variety of colors is nice addition. There’s no sound or music, but you can play your own music while playing.
Wordabble offers just enough to set itself apart from other word games with features such as online Puzzle of the Day challenges, the ability to see what words you’ve solved and missed, and a hint screen to help you out. It is a very polished and fun game well worth checking out if you’re into these kind of word games.
Keith Shepherd of Imangi Studios, has updated his word puzzle game, Imangi ($3.99), to version 2.0. You can read our review on Imangi here. This updates includes a number of improvements, as well as new gameplay modes.
Here’s the list of what’s new/updated:
Wurdle is a word puzzle that has you dragging your fingers across connecting letters to form words. The longer the word is, the greater the points. Each round can be set to last 1 minute, 2 minutes, or 3 minutes. At the end of the round, the total score is added to the scoreboard. There are both a local scoreboard and a global scoreboard, with a Top 500 list available at the developer’s website. Wurdle challenges your vocabulary and spatial reasoning abilities. A similar game to Wurdle that I reviewed is Imangi, although the mechanics are different.
As soon as you load up the game, you’re plunged straight into a round. In the bottom right corner is a button to go into the settings for the game. In there you’ll be able to read instructions on how to play Wurdle, change the colors of the tiles (Sunset, Red, Grey, Yellow, Orange, Blue, Green, Pink, or a picture available in your iPhone’s Camera Roll), turn on/off sound effects, length of time per round (1:00, 2:00, 3:00), board grid size (4×4, 5×5, 6×6, 7×7, or 8×8), minimum word length (3, 4, or 5), and dictionary to use (TWL - used for official Scrabble tournaments in USA, Canada, Thailand, and Israel, or SOWPODS - used for Scrabble tournaments in other English-speaking countries.) Finally, you can check out the online scores which takes you to the above linked webpage.
To play, you simply use your fingers to select the letters, then slide it across connecting letters to form a word. You can go in any direction; up, down, left, right, diagonal. The screen flashes when a recognized word is formed, and when you release your finger, it’ll submit the word to the list of words you’ve found so far in that particular round. To scramble the board, you simply shake your iPhone/iPod Touch and it’ll rearrange the tiles so you can find more words.
After a round completes, you’re presented with your total score, type your name in, longest word for that round, and the option whether or not to submit your score online to the global scoreboard. Then you’re presented with a list of your top scores for that round length, and the longest words you’ve discovered overall. Currently my longest word is bistro.
The graphics are pleasing to the eyes. It’s not flashy or 3D, but it works well. The selection of different colored tiles are nice, and the ability to use any photo from your Camera Roll is a great touch. At the bottom of the board is a digital sheet of paper that looks slightly crumpled, where words you’ve found are added. Personally I’m not fond of the crumpled paper look, it just looks amateurish against all the polished tiles. An update to allow for different backgrounds to be chosen would be a nice thing to have.
The sound, while minimal, works very well when dragging your finger across letters. The more letters you choose, the sound changes pitch. It’s subtle, but effective. There’s no music, but you can play your own music when loading up the game.
Wurdle is a great word puzzle game that has an incredible amount of replay value. Wurdle is about as perfect as a word puzzle on the iPhone/iPod Touch can get. It loads up fast and gets you playing right away, has a lot of options to choose from, and is easy and fun to play.
Lexitron is a word puzzle game, much like the popular online game, Text Twist. The object of the game is to form as many words as you can in the jumble of letters that you’re presented within the allotted time. You complete a round by using every single letter to form a word, or forming all the words possible.
It’s a great way to test your vocabulary, and would be great to play with kids as a fun, educational game. For example, my neighbor and her 9-year old daughter came by and we played Lexitron, and any word the little girl did not know, I’d teach her what it means and how to use it in a sentence. When a round completes, all the words you completed are grey, while words you missed are highlighted red, which is a good opportunity to learn new words, and see what words you missed.
Which is where the major shortcoming of Lexitron shows up, the inability to pause the game. There’s no main menu in the game; once you start the game, you’re instantly in the game at Round 1. You cannot previously return to a round you’ve been to before. There are save states, though, so if you’re on Round 3 and you leave the game or get a phone call, you can return to where you left off.
Options provided are the ability to lower and raise sound and music volume, turn on/off vibration (defaults to off), set the round time length (1 min, 2 min, 3 min, or forever), turn on/off shake to scramble, and reset high scores.
You interact with the game simply by tapping the letter in the order you want the word to be formed, and then double tap anywhere to submit the word you’ve formed. That’s it. Although I would prefer a Submit button instead of having to double-tap. There were times when I double-tapped but I did do it fast enough, and had to do it 2 or 3 times before it registered. A Submit button would eliminate this minor annoyance.
The visuals are polished and nice, and trumps the other Text Twist-like games available in the App Store. The animation is smooth. There’s not much to point out, but what’s there is nice to look at and interact with.
Sound effects and music are both solid and fits the themes of the game very well. The game fades off any music that you’re playing from your own library when you start it up.
Lexitron is a fun, solid word game puzzle that’s engaging and can be education, as well.
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