Word creation game for your Android phone that’ll test the depth of your vocabulary.
This is an Android game that combines elements of Bejeweled and Scrabble together. There are three different difficulty levels where you can go ‘Bananas’, but you’d have to quite word mad to really enjoy this game.
Gameplay: Random letters fall down and the aim is to spell words from them. It can’t be any word though, it has to be words of the correct length – this is indicated in the top left hand corner of the screen. If you spell a word correctly then those blocks will disappear. Letters which are less commonly used (e.g. J, K, V, X, Z) are flaming and loaded with explosives so they’ll blow the letters in the column away. The game is over if any of the columns is overloaded with blocks. If you collect enough points then you’ll progress to the next level.
Word fun: This is quite a good concept for a game, and I think it’s got great potential. The background music matches the game, and generally the sound effects are fair. There are some explosion animations which add a bit of life into the game.
The game has Open Feint connectivity which will automatically post your score online if you’re connected to the internet. So you get a slight competition atmosphere, and your efforts feel like they’re going to the wider public.
When I was young I used to have real problems with my vocabulary, so a word game like this might have helped me. It’s unfortunate that they’ve imposed the word length restrictions because they’ve dumbed down their game and made it annoying when you can clearly see longer words to spell.
Verdict: 2/5 A decent and clean game which has potential and would be good for people looking to improve their 3, 4 or 5 letter vocabulary. I’ve not given many stars to this game because the gameplay is lacking and needs more polish. If they removed the letter restriction I’d openly go around pushing this game onto youngsters nowadays, but as it stands at the moment I don’t think kids nowadays need more help in learning three letter words they can go around grunting.
Another key problem is that the letters which come down really do appear to be random – but that’s clearly a flaw because you’re eventually going to accumulate too many consonants, and you won’t have enough vowels to make words!
I hate moaning – but I really want to have a good look at their word list. Is it fully comprehensive and sourced from a good dictionary? … because it doesn’t really feel like it! To sum the game up – it’s lacking some much needed game polish.
Android Game Review Tips:
- Play without the internet or wifi on because the adverts are really obtrusive otherwise… or you can go and buy the game and support the developers!
- You get less points for using the destructive bombs so try and create as many words without using them
- The bombs can help to clear a column and make space for you to last longer, but they’re a double edged sword because they’ll destroy letters you may have wanted to keep for later.
- Try and use up the vowels in the column where the explosive is, before detonating it.
- When you get into the four and five letter rounds you should try and use as few vowels as possible. If you eat up too many of your vowels then you run the risk of losing the game earlier because you’ll accumulate too many consonants.
Word Crank’s Promotional Video
Word Crank’s QR Code
(Click on the image or scan it with your Android phone to goto the Android Market)
Developers: Sivart Technology
