Wordabble
Michael (Admin) | Sep 8, 2008 Games
(26 votes, average: 2.92 out of 5)
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Arrrggghhh! I’m not a pirate, that’s just the noise I make when I’m playing Wordabble.
Wordabble is an awesome game that’s very well-put-together, but it’s really freakin’ hard! The object is to find as many words as you can in a grid, but this isn’t the “word find” puzzle you mastered as a fourth grader.
You find words by tapping letter tiles in sequence. Each tile must be touching either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, and the words go in every possible direction so you really have to train your brain to see all the words that are hiding in plain sight. Trust me, it’s far from easy, but if you’re a true Word Nerd you’ll be addicted in short order.
Your total word count is shown at the top of the game along with the total number possible, and most puzzles have 80-150 possible words. Wordabble uses the ENABLE dictionary which is apparently way bigger than the SOWPODS and TWL dictionaries that Scrabble addicts are used to. What this means is that finding every word is nearly impossible unless you know a crapload of useless words like “naoi”, “trona”, and “titman”. Yes, I said it… TITMAN! Wordabble is nice enough to tell you what the word means which is super cool (just tap any word under “Solved”), but sorry… titman doesn’t mean what you think.
If you’re totally sure you’ve found every word imaginable but there are still 100 words yet to be located, your one saving grace will be the Hints screen. It’s a nice little cheat that shows you how many words can be started with each letter in the puzzle and how many remain for each letter. For example, if there’s a letter T and it’s the starting point for 16 different words, but you’ve already found titman, it will show 1/16, meaning there are 15 more T words possible with that tile.
Fusion Bay really went the distance in putting Wordabble together. Sure, you can play at your own pace in either a timed game (5-20 minutes depending on your settings) or a marathon (untimed) game, but the Big Feature is the competitive game option that lets you play the Puzzle of the Day and compare your score against other Wordabblers. You do need to register, but it’s done entirely within the app so it’s easy to do.
This game feels very complete and right now I can only think of two possible improvements. The first would be to let you switch dictionaries because that ENABLE dictionary is pretty f’d up! I’ve played my share of Scrabble so I’m familiar with a lot of the BS words people use in SOWPODS, and it would be nice if I could play a game that uses words I already know.
The other improvement would be some sound options. Music would be annoying as hell and I’m glad it’s not there, but some sound effects might be nice… maybe a tap noise for hitting letters, a chime for correct words, and a buzzer (or laugh track?) for when I try to spell out complete nonsense. Of course, if doing this would mean I can’t listen to my own music during the game then I’m guessing we’d all be better off without it.
Other than that, this game has it all.
If you’re like me and tend to measure the cost of a game vs. the amount of amusement it provides, $2.99 is a small price to pay for Wordabble. It’s fun, it’s very user-friendly, it’s got lots of cool features, it allows you to compete with others, and on top of all that the execution is nice and glossy. If you love word games, fear not… Wordabble won’t disappoint.
P.S. Here are my amateur Wordabble tips for the rookies (don’t laugh at me if you’re a pro!):
- Pluralize everything and look for other add-on letters
Anytime you find a word that’s a noun or a verb, look for an S nearby because BOOK and BOOKS are two different words. Likewise with verbs that can change tense (ie: DINE becoming DINES OR DINED) and anything else that can transform by tacking on or changing a single letter. - Look for anagrams and shorter words-within-words
If you find a word like STALE, maybe you can also turn that into SALE, SEAL, TALE, LATE, TEAL, STEAL, TALES, etc. - Milk letter combos for all they’re worth
It’s obvious that you’d look for words starting with SH-, CH-, TH-, etc., but endings can be just as valuable. How many words end with -NK? I dunno, but it’s probably a lot. I just found FINK, SINK, SANK, and DANK without having to look very hard. - Experiment with words you don’t know but sound legit
Hardcore word games always rely on bizarre words nobody uses, and there’s no penalty for guessing at words and failing (just tap the red (-) icon to remove it). I didn’t know DANK was a word, but apparently it exists.
That’s all I can come up with – hope it helps! If you have your own Wordabble tips, please post them in the comments.
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- Other possible names for Wordabble: Wabbleword! Wordwabble! Blibbleblabble!
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- Start a new game or wallow in the misery of your last Wordabble failure
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- Puzzle of the Day is enough reason alone to get this game
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- Tap the green (+) to confirm the word, or the red (-) to remove it
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- Wordabble Hints will hopefully keep you from wanting to jump off a bridge
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- See your solved words (and their meanings) anytime during the game
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- Aww dammit, and I just got TITMAN tattoed across my chest
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- You can see the answers, but first you have to admit defeat
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- Wanna see your score in the Top 10 even though you're a huge tard? Play Puzzle of the Day shortly after midnight while everyone's sleeping!
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- Well, at least I got TITS right...
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- To quote the milf Shania Twain, "That don't impress me much!" Ok, it really does. Grrr
