When you don't have anyone to play with in the flesh, nothing beats a round of competitive online Scrabble. If you're constantly on the move, the Scrabble app developed by Electronic Arts (EA) for Android and iOS mobile devices is probably your favorite way to play. But let's face it—if you love Scrabble, you probably love all types of word games, and if you're on the hunt for that next fun and challenging logological mobile game, I've got a few suggestions for you...
1. Words with Friends / Wordfeud
This game probably need no explanation, because it's consume the lives of Scrabblers everywhere with its sleek design and smooth interface. If you just want to play and don't care about keeping a record, this is the way to go. The actual Scrabble app is great for keeping track of your games and scores, but compared to Words with Friends, it's slow, clunky and even ugly. And just as the name suggests, this game is best for playing your friends, especially those who would normally never play Scrabble with you.
- Words with Friends for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch ($1.99)
- Words with Friends for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch (free)
- Words with Friends for Android (free)
- Words with Friends on Facebook
If you're not into Zynga games, Wordfeud is just as good, if not better.
- Wordfeud for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch (free, but with $2.99 in-app upgrade option)
- Wordfeud for Android ($3.01)
- Wordfeud Free for Android (free)
2. Dabble
I recently wrote about Dabble and its fast-paced addictiveness. Twenty letters are stacked in a pyramid shape, and you have to rearrange the letter tiles as fast as you can to spell out five legit words of various sizes (2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 letters long). What makes it so fun? Instead of just working with one rack of letters, you're working with five, and you have to strategically reorder them to spell words on each rung—in under five minutes! It's pretty fun if you're into word games that test your speed.
3. AbbleDabble
I'm not sure what the fascination is with the word "dabble", but AbbleDabble is just like Scrabble and Words with Friends, only it's got a twist—all of the bonus squares on the board move after each player's turn. It's an interesting way to play, since you can't really plan out your next move based on points, because your score will always change when the bonus squares shift. So, you have to concentrate on your current turn, without worrying about your next one. If you don't like the moving bonuses, you can still play a static game.
4. Boggle / WordTwist / Dropwords
If you like Boggle more than Scrabble, then you'll enjoy the official Boggle app for iOS devices. This game is like a word search, where words are not just horizontal, vertical and diagonal, they're squares and rectangles and zee-shaped. As long as you can connect one letter to the other, it's legit (you just can't use the same letter twice in the same word). I used to love playing Scramble by Zynga, but they since changed the game for the worst (with a new name), so Boggle is my new favorite word search game.
If you've got an Android, I'd recommend either WordTwist or Dropwords (which used to be called Word Drop). WordTwist is just like Boggle and has multiplayer mode, whereas Dropwords weaves in a hint of Bejeweled, incorporating bombs into the fast paced gameplay, but limits the play to just one person.
- WordTwist Pro for Android ($3.15)
- WordTwist Lite for Android (free)
- Dropwords PRO for Android ($1.09)
- Dropwords for Android (free)
5. WordSearch Unlimited
If you want to relax a little, WordSearch Unlimited is the perfect way to do that. It's definitely not as challenging or stressful as any of the above word games, but it's just as fun. Just find the words, much like in Boggle, WordTwist, and Dropwords, only this time they are only horizontal, vertical and diagonal, just like those word search puzzle books you would get at the bookstore or grocery store. WordSearch Unlimited is available for both Android and iOS, but by different game developers.
- WordSearch Unlimited for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch ($0.99)
- WordSearch Unlimited Free for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch (free)
- WordSearch Unlimited for Android ($1.58)
- WordSearch Unlimited Free for Android (free)
Games to Avoid
Bananagrams is an awesome warmup game for Scrabble, but the application for Apple devices is in need of some serious updates. There's a lot wrong with the app (which I won't go into), so until you start seeing some five-star reviews in the iTunes App Store, I'd stay away. Other games I would avoid are Word Scramble Challenge Edition, Words, Word Scramble, and anything that has a rating of 3 stars or less in the Android Market or iTunes App Store.
Photo by William Brawley
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