If you're a fan of word games then you're probably familiar with Boggle, where you're given a set of random letters and have to try to form as many words as possible with them before the timer runs out. Word Twist isn't the first word game to riff on that classic formula, but it does create a unique online framework for it that lets you challenge your Facebook friends to a game without actually having to be sitting across from them, or even playing at the same time.

To start a game of Word Twist on Facebook, all you have to do is add the application, click which of your friends you want to play with (games can consist of two, three or four players), and then begin by taking your turns.

You can specify the number of rounds (two to ten), but the default is three. In each round, you'll get two minutes to spell as many words as possible from the given letters, either by clicking on them with the mouse or simply typing them with the keyboard. Longer and rarer words are worth more points

You can plow through all of the rounds at once, or play a few and then take a break and come back to it later. Once you're done, your score is tallied up and you're done - but you won't know if you've won the game until your friends play their rounds, which they can do whenever they happen to be online.

When all of your friends have completed their rounds, a winner is crowned and you can use a handy chart to see how many words and which words each person got. Your highest score is recorded on the Word Ladder for bragging rights.

The default language is English, of course, but you can also play in French or Italian.

Click here to play Word Twist, and if you don't have a Facebook account you can sign up for one there as well.