iAppLover

Wurdle App Game

I like playing games on my iPhone.  I’m the kind of person who needs constant mental stimulation and that makes me fairly picky when it comes to figuring out what to do while I’m on the subway train or during a particularly lonely lunch break. Crosswords used to be my thing – now, word games like Wurdle have taken its place.

Wurdle is one of the latest in a long line of word games that include the now dated Text Twist. It is puzzle game, similar to Boggle in spirit and design – letters are arranged on an adjustable grid and it’s up to you to find as many words as you can in a preset amount of time, which can be anywhere from one minute to three minutes. There’s even a world wide scoreboard for people who’re fairly competitive – I particularly enjoy this as every now and then I develop a competitive streak of my own.

Now, playing the game itself is fairly simple – simply run your finger along the set of letters that form a legal word and the point value for that word is added to your score for the round.  Shaking your iPhone or iPod touch scrambles the offered letters, giving outs for people who just don’t dig the current set of letters.

Graphically, it’s the sort of thing you’d expect from ancient gaming consoles or a rudimentary pc, but word games are rarely known for their flashy looks after all.

The sounds for Wurdle are subtle, minimalistic and yet, quite effective. Each time you select a letter, a sound is played and when the more letters you choose, the higher the pitch of the sound, lending a sort of build-up and progression – a minute reward that can turn a good game into an addictive one.

Wurdle costs only $1.99, which fits its pros and cons.  The cons of Wurdle are largely due to the fact that it is, at the end of the day, yet another search for words game with a slightly different interface and scoring system.  It’s a fairly enjoyable one of course and one that you can get tremendous mileage out of considering the price, but still a board game.

If you’re looking for something fun to play and somewhat educational to boot, like I was, this is a good buy and a good addition to any iPhone’s repertoire.  If you’re bored of whatever word games you have on your phone, this is a good way of entertaining yourself.  It’s kept me busy for many, many hours.