Mobile Game Review of "Wordox"

Wordox was one of Sierra's "Hoyle Games", that Vivendi Universal (parent of Sierra) decided to tap it as one of their mobile games. Unfortunate, it has more knowledge of words than you do, so unless you happen to know a lot of words that are 6-letters or shorter, expect to get beaten by the AI all the time, unless you play the dumbest level. Thus this game really isn't that fun.

WARNING: Word Snatcher is the same game, despite somewhat different description. Got tricked and downloaded it AGAIN! :P

The game is similar to Scrabble (tm), but with a much smaller board. You get to start first against AI, and your first word must pass through center of the board. The longer your word, the more you score. However, if you can use the other player's letters to form your word, you can "steal" those letters from his side to your side, and thus, he will lose those points while you gain them. However, you only have six letters available (plus whatever's on the board). So don't expect to form long words. If you can't form a word within the time limit, the letters are passed to the AI. If neither side can form words with the 6 letters available, they are discarded and 6 new random letters are chosen. If you used up some letters, they are replaced, so there are always six letters available (can be repeated) basically both player take turns placing letters on the board to form words. There are pink and orange squares on the board. If you manage to place words on orange squares, you gain orange points. If you then place words on pink squares, you redeem your orange points into real scoring points. The object is to get to 25 points before the other player.

As mentioned before, the AI has access to a good dictionary, and you need a dictionary to play against it at the higher levels. AI knows tricks that you don't, like forming two words at once. Keep in mind that if you make a mistake and put in a word that's not recognized by the program, you'll lose the turn to the AI (at two of the three difficulty levels). This, when combined with the AI's dictionary knowledge, gives it a enormous advantage over you, the human player.

I personally don't like word puzzles, but I can see there's a market for this. Unfortunately, this game isn't as cute as Bookworm or other word puzzle games, and there really isn't too much to recommend this game over others, esp. with the AI that holds all the cards (letters?).

Rating: 6 out of 10
Pros: you'll learn some words you didn't know are words
Cons: you'll be exclaiming "that's not a word!" over and over