Wordfeud Free

 I'm sorry it's almost 2 months since the last entry on to this blog, though I've had a good excuse and returned with an excellent game that brings multiplayer action, intelligence and a twist on a memorable game. Firstly I've been busy with the parent blog of this one which has now become a booming success regularly getting 400+ visitors a day. If you'd like to check that out click here and read about tips and tricks to get the most from your phone and even how to save some money!

Anyway now we've returned to Android Games Reviews we've returned with Wordfeud a multiplayer scrabble clone that has become on my most played games on my phone. As you can see from the screen shot on the right this is essentially Scrabble under a different name with slightly differently set "bonus" squares and and the letters scores have been tinkered with slightly.


Whilst the graphics are simple and the sounds are relatively minimal what the game does wonderfully is is allow you and a friend to play head to head to try and out score each other.

The rules are basic, you are given a "rack" of 7 letters with which to make words on the board and try to accumulate more points than your opponent. You word must connect with at least one other word currently on the board and when all the letters (or "tiles") are used the player with the highest score wins. Despite being awfully simple the competitive nature of the game will have you hooked and the fact you can spice up the board with the bonus squares randomised and playing randomly selected players makes the game a good time waster.

The game also has a chat function in if you wish to flirt...or taunt your opponents.

The game has 2 issues that I'm not a big fan of, mainly that your wins and losses don't seem to be recorded any where which is a bit of a shame and the adverts. Whilst the adverts do lead to the game being free they just seem a little bit too frequent for my liking. However neither of these detract from an excellent game and a game that truly shows how excellent the internet can be used for gaming with an android phone.

Addictiveness-8/10 The competitive nature really hooks you.
Controls-7/10 Simple but they work. The game really couldn't have much simpler controls.
Graphics-5/10 They do their job.
Sounds-2/10 Very simply sounds, nothing to be shocked or amazed by.
Originality-5/10 It's scrabble with a slight twist.

Total score 27/50

Very fun and shows the ability to make truly online multiplayer android games. This is a success and who cares if it's a clone of Scrabble?

Game mark B

Wordaholic

 After enjoying a number of maths based games I decided to try some word based games and downloaded Wordaholic. I was hoping that this would be just as addictive as things like Mathgame, Math Maniac and the excellent The King of OX though was left sadly under-whelmed by this for some reason.

The game sees you making words from the letters in the honeycomb like structure that can see below. Each of the letters has a number on it that corresponds to the score you get for using it in scrabble (Z=10, A=1, J=8 etc) and the idea is that you try to build the biggest score you can with all your words added together. In principle this sounds fun and set against a clock it should be frantic and really, really good fun.

The games big flaw comes in with it's "reward" system. For every 5 words you create you get a bonus 15 seconds on all 3 of the games timed modes (Normal, Lightning and Chaos) although this is a good idea in principle it leads to a big flaw with the game. The ability to create endless strings of 2 letter words. Using the image to the right you can create a number of very quick and easy 2 letter words (things such as "aw", "it", "de", "da", "to", "ho", "aa" and "he" amongst many others) to in essence give you unlimited time. Whilst it's nice to be rewarded it turns what should be a quick and addictive game into a real slog to try and put your name on the leaderboard (or should that be leader bored?).

The huge flaw in the game is the worst part though the graphics don't do anything amazing and won't blow you away either. Oddly the game, which played fine 12 hours ago, now seems to be plagued by yet another, much more serious problem, repeated Force Close screens after pressing "Submit".

Addictiveness-4/10 When it was working it was flawed, fun but very flawed
Controls-7/10 They do their job but feel a little bit off at times
Graphics-4/10 Uninspiring and unexciting
Sounds-0/10 Silence means a score of 0* (At least it seems like silence, the game is now crashing before I get to test)
Originality-3/10 Similar, in a way, to Boggle and boggle clones so it's nothing original though it's still a nice idea to put onto the phones.

Total score 18/50

The combinations of the Force Close screens and the games "big flaw" has seen me actually uninstall the game as it's broken. Our rule on "broken" games is that they are automatically given an F. Oddly when the game was working fine I'd have given it a D+ as it's acceptable but boring and the "flaw" kills the game's sense of urgency addictiveness.

Game mark F
This game has been inducted into our Hall of Shame