Worded is a word game that mashes together a bunch of ideas to make something pretty interesting. It’s part word-search, part anagram solver, part board-clearing puzzler. And while it has a few little niggles, it’s a great way to stretch your vocabulary and have fun at the same time.
The game plays out on a grid of letter tiles. You can connect these to make words. Made words clear the board and send some more letters rattling in from above. The bigger the word you make, the more letters you clear around the word. Which is good, because no matter the length of the word you make, ten letters are added to the board.
There are different colored tiles as well, and you can only make connections with tiles of the same hue. But things are a little more interesting than that. The letters of the word you make don’t have to be in the right order.
Get a complete word in the right order and it’ll turn green and zap off the board when you lift your finger. Get a word in anagram form and the tiles will turn orange. Now you’ll have to rearrange the letters to spell the word correctly and score some points.
It means you’re looking for a number of different things. Complete words are great, but you also have to keep an eye out for combinations that can make something longer and far more useful. There are power-up tiles as well. Some of these clear the letters around them, others can be used as any letter, making anagrams even more interesting.
Worded can sometimes feel quite overwhelming, but there’s no time-pressure here. You can spend as long as you need trying to find the best word. It can be frustrating as well, and the impatient might find them scribbling on the screen to try and find anagrams to rearrange. It isn’t the most attractive looking game either.
So no, it isn’t perfect, but it’s engaging enough that you’re going to find yourself getting lost in it. If you’re after a word game that does things a little differently, then Worded is definitely well worth checking out.
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