Words With Friends HD (iPad Game) > Reviews (2)

I've always been a fan of more intelligent games be they board games or the computer variety, so when I came across people in work playing words with friends on their iPads or smart phones I just had to download it and see what all the fuss was about.

Words wi friends in a game develop by Zynga mobile and is basically scrabble by another name. There's a free version available which exults in an advert popping up after every move, or a advert free version costing £1.49. Now it has to be said the adverts can be tolerated by many people, however I hate them on any game or website so I definitely recommend paying the small price to get the advert free version. The game is available on iPad, iPhone or on android, but I play on the ipadversion as the screen is large enough for my poor eyes to see it properly!

As I said the game is basically scrabble and it works by logging in through Facebook and playing against your friends on there. Once you are logged in, you won't have to log in again, and you can invite your friends through it or choose to play against a random opponent if you so desire. You can also chat using the game which can be interesting if you are playing a random opponent. You can also choose to accept or decline game invites as they come in, and there is also a pass and play option to play against your friends in the same room by simply passing the iPad around.

The game plays exactly like scrabble, with th first word being played straight through the
Star in the centre of the board, and subsequent words are then played through or from the letters currently on the board. There are a plethora of DL TL TW and DW tiles across the board and they are double and triple letter scores, and double and triple word scores, just like on a regular scrabble board. These are especially important to increase your total, and tactics quickly come into play as quit often playing the longest or most fancy word you can doesn't translate to the highest possible score. Some useful tips to bear in mind are that if you add an 's' to the end of a word you get the points for that whole word, so a smallish word with an s at the end of another doesn't half rack up the points on occasion, and secondly if all else fails, QI is a word, and playing the Q on a double or triple scoring tile will get you a bucket load if you are stuck for only playing one letter! My highest score with one play is currently 104 which I was particularly happy with - no bragging if you have scored more please :) you also get a 35 point bonus if you can play a word using all 7 of your tiles, so this is worth bearing in mind particularly at the start of a game when the whole board is free for you.

The game itself ends when all of the tiles have been used up. The player who plays their last tile first gets a bonus score of the remaining tiles in the opponents hand added and the winner is unsurprisingly the player who has the highest score at the end. One of my major bug bears of this game has to be that there is no facility to give you or your friends a win loss record, so it's hard to decide whether to accept random requests as you are unsure of the quality of the opposition.

In addition I am quite competitive and generally win more than I lose, so I would like this record kept. There are other nice little touches to the game such as if you shake your iPad the tiles shuffle around which sometimes helps to highlight a word if you are really struggling to find one. In addition you can skip your go, or choose to swap some of your tiles if they are really bad, but you lose your go if you do this.

The graphics on this game are functional if not superb. The board is very clear and the tiles very scrabble like so in that case it does it's job we'll. Setting up the games from the menu button is. Wry straightforward too so no real complaints on that score. Sound effects are slightly poor, with a sort of fan fair noise when a word is played. The game will also pop up and remind you when it is your turn, and this is also highlighted with the same da dah sort of noise which can be a tad annoying at times!

So to sum this one up, I would say that words with friends is a great game for those who enjoy scrabble and want to get one over on all their mates, especially ones who use unnecessarily long words! It's well worth getting the paid version to avoid the annoying adverts and is more addictive than it seems. The problem of not showing your win loss record is a relatively minor one, and all in all this game is well worth taking a look at.

This review may also appear on dooyoo under my same username.