WordJong is Scrabble with options. Players
drill down through a stack of tiles by spelling words. New letters come into
play as tiles are cleared, and they can be added to the word being assembled.
Eventually, the pyramid is reduced to a final handful of letters—this is
where the game feels the most puzzle-like. Strategic use of letters is key, or
you'll get stuck with a pile of useless consonants. Words are scored by length
and use of rarer letters. This angle will appeal to hardcore vocabulary dorks,
who will rise to the challenge of wringing the maximum number of points out of
each deal.
Already popular on PCs, WordJong works nicely as a portable
game. The puzzles are bite-sized and easy to jump in and out of when everyday
distractions demand that the DS return to your pocket. WordJong is also surprisingly
well-rounded for a bargain-priced game. Casual players will find a new "Daily
Puzzle" unlocked every day, while the competitive can take their talent for
anagrams online to battle against other players. In these face-offs, players
take turns selecting tiles from the same stack, scoring words until the last
tile is drawn. In theory, a game this obscure shouldn't be terribly popular
with the online gaming crowd, but the players are out there, and some of them
are really good. It's unusual for a low-budget Nintendo DS game like WordJong to come with fully
functional online and local wireless play. It's even rarer for a cheap game to
be this robust and thoughtfully assembled.
Beyond the game: WordJong riffs on the
"turtle-style" tile stacking of Mah Jong solitaire, a game PC gamers may
remember from knock-offs like Taipei and Shanghai.
Worth playing for: Solo players can undo
their steps, rethink strategies, and experiment with multiple approaches. This
casual, punishment-free approach makes puzzling all the more relaxing.
Frustration sets in
when: There's
an infuriating nine-letter ceiling on word length. Cleaning up the last scraps
of tiles frequently requires using iffy two-letter words. And what dictionary
doesn't recognize the word "Monday"?
Final judgment: For those who haven't
taken the New York Times Crossword puzzle out of their handheld in six months.