Word and puzzle games are the most difficult games to review.  No standard exists and it’s hard to compare them to other genres.  I am not a seasoned veteran when it comes to word games, but I do however enjoy a well crafted and challenging game and that’s what WordsWorth is.

The concept of the game is simple.  Create words out of the randomly scattered letters to get the highest score possible.  Yes, we have seen this many times before, but it’s all about features and overall polish.

To create a word, simply tap each letter to connect them together and than hit the submit button in the lower right corner.  You can also drag your finger across the letters to avoid having to hit the submit button.  Both control very well, so the choice is yours.

Scoring is based on the type of letters used, length of words, multipliers, and a whole slew of other factors.  A green letter signifies a bonus letter which you can use to gain extra points.  A blue piece is a wild card, you can use it in place of any letter you want.  A gold bonus letter is created when you create a word that is two letters more than the minimum.  Buzzwords start appearing after the first round, they are located at the bottom of the screen.  Create the buzzword to gain extra points.  The buzzwords stay at the bottom of the screen through each level until you finally create that word, so don’t worry if you are having troubles with them.  All of these extras go a long way in achieving the ultimate high score and you can use them together to create large bonuses.

If you are having troubles creating words with the given letters, you can simply shake your iPhone/iPod Touch to generate new letters or tap the man in the bottom left corner of the screen.  You are only allowed to do this a set number of times and there is a penalty tied to it.  If you decide it is necessary to scramble the letters, you are given a red letter with a timer.  If you fail to use that red letter in a word, the game is over.  This is the only way to lose.  No other timer exists so if there isn’t a red letter you can take as much time as you want attempting to create the longest word possible.

In the settings menu you are allowed to fully customize your game.  If the game is too difficult or too easy, you can set the minimum word size from three to five letters, the grid size from four to seven letters and the amount of scrambles allowed per level.  Three different sets of word lists exist including TWL, the official word list for Scrabble tournaments.  I was unaware such a thing existed.

With all of the setting variations, it’s extremely easy to find the settings that best suit you.  WordsWorth also sports in game sound so you can play your own music if you so choose.  The only setting that seems to have been overlooked is a screen dimming option.  Since the game doesn’t have a timer, I spent a good portion of my time just staring at the screen trying to find words.  While doing this, the screen will dim and you have to touch it to bring it back to the normal brightness.  It would be nice to have an option to have the screen not dim.

A rudimentary leaderboard exists.  At this time no online components are available.  It’s not the end of the world, but it would be a nice addition.  The bigger problem is that the high score system is one big list.  If you choose to change the grid size or the minimum letter length, there isn’t a separate leaderboard.  Changing some of these settings obviously effects your scoring ability so having separate leaderboards would be a nice addition.

WordsWorth is a full featured word puzzle game.  The developers have been listening to their customers and wasted no time implementing more features and hopefully they keep up the good work.  The game never crashed a single time, no odd anomalies, and no need to restart, a rare find as of late for iPhone/iPod Touch games.  If finding words is up your alley, I recommend you take WordsWorth for a spin.  There is also a lite version available for free, but at $1.99, it’s not much of a risk to go for the full featured game.

Overall: 8.5 out of 10

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