Wordfeud: Scrabble madness for your Android phone!
Have you ever felt at a loss because you couldn’t get your friends round for a good game of Scrabble? Well look no further because this is your solution! Wordfeud is an online version of the board game Scrabble, where you can play online with the rest of the world. Check out its highlights and our tips below.
Gameplay: It’s Scrabble, so you have seven tiles, each of which has a letter on it. Your goal is to get as high a score as possible by laying out your letters on the board so that it spells different words. There are points associated with each letter, and the more difficult it is to use then the more points it’ll have. After using your pieces then you’ll replenish your set so that you have seven tiles again (until all the letters are gone). The gridded board has special squares which give different bonuses when you create words over them (e.g. double/triple letter points or double/triple word points). For a more detailed explanation of the game, check out this description.
What’s different in this Android version of Scrabble?
- The score from each word is calculated automatically, so there’s less arguments about how much each move was really worth. (But to properly win you still need to know how to calculate the points for each word.)
- There’s a shuffle function which allows you to rearrange your letters very quickly – this can help you reconsider what words you may be able to create.
- In case you’re concerned about the letters being too small, if you double tap the screen then you zoom in and out.
- There’s a counter showing how many tiles there are left.
- The most important thing is that because this seems to be a popular game then there are many players readily available.
This sounds amazing, is it really as good as Scrabble? Unfortunately, there are some weaknesses to this game. Think very logically about this: when you play a board game with someone, if they’re taking too much time to move, then you prod them and tell them to hurry up. How do you really tell someone to hurry up when you can’t see them? Ok, so there’s a chat messaging system… but honestly, you’re still powerless to make your partner move. I quote:
“A player has 72 hours to complete his or her turn. After this the player will be resigned automatically, and the opponent will win the game”
So… technically… you can make a word every three days. If each player did this then a game of Scrabble would take months! To combat this boredom, thankfully you can play multiple matches in parallel at the same time.
Also, when an opponent is with you, then you can ensure they aren’t cheating… what stops your online partner from cheating?
From a detailed gaming perspective, the game mirrors the board game quite well. However, I can’t help but feel that perhaps the developers could have put a music option into the game. Perhaps some of the animations or graphics could have been spiced up. Luckily Scrabble is well known and I guess nobody is really bothered about fancy extras.
Verdict: 3/5 A good implementation of one of the most famous board games in the world and it’s a great way for improving your English vocabulary. If I were to compare it to other interactive games it would probably score only two stars. Even on the board game scale it’s not four stars either… the loss of one star is due to the problem with players themselves. (i.e. you can do nothing if your opponent has 3 days to take one move!) Yes you can play multiple games, but a good game is one that is completed to the end (win or lose) within a timely manner. This is only a good game if you have patience… great patience…
Word Feud Tips from Android Games Review:
- Be careful the first time when you play – be patient and don’t keep searching for new players otherwise you’ll start up loads of games you’re unaware of.
- Consider putting your country into your username so that you can give people a subtle indication of what times you may be playing. That way you or other people will know when to roughly expect moves to be made.
- Try and end your game by using up all your letters. Otherwise you need to wait for three consecutive passes on both sides. (This is another scenario where you’d finish faster if you had a face-to-face opponent)
- General Scrabble tips apply – so focus on the letters with lots of points and also the special squares which really boost your points.
- More gameplay tips can be found on this Scrabble website here.
Wordfeud QR Code
Click on the image or scan the barcode with your Android phone to goto the Android Market
Developers: Wordfeud developers
