Friday, May 1, 2009

Wordee. ($0.99, version 1.0.0)



iTunes Link.

Lite Version.


I was very excited to play Wordee at first because I love word games. My excitement diminished somewhat when I found out it's not really a word game but a sliding game. You've probably played sliding games before. You have square with numbers or images on them and you have 1 blank square. You slide the other squares around until you recreate the image or put the numbers in sequence. Wordee is just like that, except that you recreate pre-determined words.



When you first start up the app you can go ahead and start playing or go to the options. The options include the credits, sound on or off, and a clear data button that erases all progress. It remembers your settings after the app is restarted.



Once you press play you get taken to the level selection screen. From here you can go back to the main menu and access four pages of help, including some hints. Your completion percentage is on the bottom center. There are a total of 70 levels. Something really nice is that you can choose to complete a level at any time without having to have finished all the levels before.



Once you select a level, you are taken to the main game screen. The level number is on the upper right and on the bottom you have buttons to go back to the level selection screen and to get to the help screens. Something extremely nice is that each level saves your progress if you exit out or use the button to go back to the level selection screen. So you could be working on several levels at the same time.

You finish a level by moving letters around and getting them into their correct spot. Once the letters are in the right spot, they light up. You can still move around in order to get the other letters in place. The trick is to use the empty space(s) to help you move the letters around to their right spot.



I realized it was a sliding game and not a word game when I formed valid words but the letters wouldn't light up. It doesn't matter if you form words, you just have to form the pre-determined words and place them in their pre-determined place. This is the main reason why this isn't a word game. There could be numbers or pictures instead of words and the gameplay would be the same.

There's clicking sounds when you select menu items and a nice wooshing sound when a board appear and a little congratulatory sound when you beat the level, along with beeping noises as you slide tiles around. There's no music.



My main reason for disliking this game is because it's mis-categorized. It's not a word game, it's a sliding game. I like word games but dislike sliding games. If you like sliding games, this is as good as any and more challenging, as it gives you 70 different levels in ascending difficulty. The recommendation is based on what you expect this game to be. If you expect this to be a word game, you may be in for a big letdown and disappointment as I don't think it's a word game at all. If you are looking for a sliding puzzle game, this has tons of level, saves each level indivially, looks great, and has a lot of replayability and is very challenging. Word game? Skip it. Sliding game? Highly recommended. Try out the Lite version and see how you like it.

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