Word Tower Review for iPhone and iPod Touch

Word Tower, by Little Red Bike Media, has gained a loyal following since its release earlier this year. The game incorporates many different, and popular, word and puzzle games to create a wickedly addictive scrabble/crossword/tetris experience you can’t find anywhere else. Read on to see just what makes Word Tower a winner!

Review

It’s alright. We can’t all be math wizards. So NineGaps might not be the best game for you. But have no fear, because a new brain buster has arrived and enters full force on the iTunes app scene.

The goal is simple: Rack up as many points as possible per level, by spelling whatever words you can with the ever falling letters. Don’t let the stack of letters reach the top of the screen or its game overt!

When I first cracked open this game, I did not know what to expect. But after a few rounds I quickly picked up on the strategy to help get me through each level. You begin with a pile of letters at the bottom of your screen, as more fall from above. Just as in tetris, they fall in lines, but you can tap and drag each falling letter to whichever stack you like. The bigger the word you spell, the more points you receive. There are power-ups and bonuses available as well.

The most common bonus is the Star, and when used as part of a word, triples your point bonus. The snowflake must be used while it is falling, or else it turns to ice and blocks your path once it hits the stacks. Shake the phone to change the snowflake letter. Brick tiles can only be destroyed by spelling four letter words with them. Select a Bomb in a word, and it will blow up random tiles for you, and as a bonus, you get points! The key and keyhole are sometimes the gateway to new levels. Make both of them touch, by either spelling the words around them or catching them while they are falling.

Word Tower provides you with 5 different difficulty levels: Starter, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Genius. Each difficulty level increases speed and amount of vowels that drop. ANd let me warn you now, Genius difficulty is there for just that, geniuses. Very fun to attempt, but extremely difficult to master. I felt that the difficulty settings increased at a steady pace, and didn’t jump from too easy to insanely difficult too fast.

There is online scorekeeping available, so that you may compare your best score to other gamers online.

The graphics and interface are simple and smooth, and did not lock up or freeze during games. Navigation is simple and the different pages are well labeled. Audio for Word Tower is simple and does not get in the way or gameplay, or really add anything to the game experience.

I did find that during the easier levels, there seemed to be an abnormal amount of vowels that would drop. While I do understand that the easy levels provide more vowels to help players create words, but there were times when the only letters available on screen were those well known few: A, E, I, O, and U.

Overall, Word Tower is a great game to pick up and play whenever there is a free moment, or you are looking for a challenging game to stretch those brain muscles.

Tips

1. Can’t find a word in all the clutter?? Flip your iPhone over! The letters will reverse and give you a new look on things.

2. Conquered all that there is on the starting difficulty? Oh don’t worry, there is sure to be one setting that will put you in your spelling place. Hit up the settings to pick one of 5 challenging difficulties.

Recommendation

I would recommend Word Tower to tetris junkies, sudoku fanatics, crossword addicts, and everyone in between.

Photos

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