Word Trick Review

Fumbling over words has never been this fun. Outplay Entertainment’s Word Trick doesn’t reinvent the Scrabble formula, but its subtle changes and additions make this a must-play for any and all Facebook gamers.

By
Share this
  • Share this on Facebook
  • Share this on Twitter

Word Trick is Scrabble made social

Fumbling over words has never been this fun. Outplay Entertainment’s Word Trick doesn’t reinvent the Scrabble formula, but its subtle changes and additions make this a must-play for any and all Facebook gamers.

Word Trick forgoes any premise of adventure and gets right down to the nitty gritty. In traditional Scrabble style, you’ll be given a handful of letters to work with, and you’ll need to form words, working your way outward from the middle of the board. Newly placed words need to be attached to existing words, and if you overlap multiple letters of a single word, those combinations, too, must form words the game recognizes.

Word Trick

If there’s a single issue I have with Word Trick, it’s with the selection of words the game does or does not accept as valid submissions. Words in common day-to-day use might be rejected, yet the game may have no problem with two-letter combinations that seem nonsensical.

This one criticism aside, Word Trick is just darn fun. As someone who loves action-adventure games and RPGs, I would never seek out this type of gameplay of my own volition. But Word Trick quickly won me over with its excellent features and novel wordplay.

Each game you start is either against a Facebook friend or random user. However, the exchange of gameplay isn’t in real-time. Rather, you are encouraged to have up to 21 separate games going at once, moving from each game to the next as your turns come up, much like in Words With Friends. It’s a great formula that allows players to add words whenever they want without ever having to wait long to take a turn or three in one of their existing competitions.

The “trick” aspect of Word Trick comes into play by trying to combo letters using multiple green tiles in a row for a single word, as well as laying down letters on bonus spaces on the game board. As you rack up combos and such, you’ll unlock new achievements – a simple yet effective way to keep you coming back for more.

Word Trick

The interface is convenient and inviting, alerting you whenever you have turns available in one of your various games. Games that have turns waiting for you are presented at the top of your games list, and inviting friends is done in-game without the need for those annoying pop-up Facebook windows.

Visually, Word Trick is simple and straightforward, but it’s also attractive and has some endearing sound effects. There’s no full-screen mode, but considering the game’s quick-fix nature, the feature isn’t missed at all.

Regardless of whether or not wordplay games are typically your thing, Word Trick is definitely a game anyone can have fun with. Similar type games have appeared on Yahoo and elsewhere for years, but Word Trick polishes the formula to a near-perfect shine. It’s mildly annoying when the game rejects a word you know to be valid while accepting others you’ve never used before, but the ease of gameplay and simple fun greatly outweigh this one minor gripe.

The good

    The bad

      90 out of 100