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 Word Puzzle
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800 Microsoft Points Puzzle game Developed by Interserv Game Studios Puzzlingly familiarHello and welcome to the first installment of the Microsoft Downloadable round-up. Today we have a puzzle game called Word Puzzle, a (you guessed) word search game. You may recognize it from bars around the world. If so, the premise will be familiar. The game has several play modes. The Arcade mode throws board after board of words at you, showing the first or last letter in the word highlighted. Your task is to find in which direction the rest of the word goes by inserting a word from a list that is displayed on the side. A timer keeps track of the time you have left to solve each word. By stringing combos together fast, you can keep the time from running out. When it does, it is game over. Survival mode brings an interesting twist. Words are bombs that, unless they are found quickly, will explode and cause them to be locked out for a couple of seconds. You only need to find some highlighted words but they constantly change. With time ticking away in the corner of your eye, the game can get challenging real fast. Should you fail, you can just start over on the same stage you were on before losing. In later stages where 3-D Cube Puzzles are abundant, this is definitely a welcome feature. Competing the worldMultiplayer modes come in the shape of the Local Battle and Live Battle modes. In these you race up to 3 other people to find words on a grid. Similar to arcade games like Mario Kart, it is possible to block your opponent’s view. When that timer is counting down and something blocks your view, having this done to you can be quite maddening. For puzzle purists, a Freeplay mode is available for more ‘traditional’ word search fun. Global Leaderboards will let you check your standing in the world rankings which helps motivate those with a drive to win to keep playing. Future downloadable word packs have been announced and should prolong the experience, not to mention that you are given the option of puzzling in 4 languages: English, French, Spanish and German. C’est Magnifique! Strangely addictiveWhile most of the game runs and plays just fine, there is one issue with the game that I hope will get fixed soon. At times, the cursor can end up moving faster than the screen can scroll. With the clock ticking and you struggling to keep up with what is happening on the screen, this can be quite problematic. Overall, Word Puzzle provides a fun and strangely addictive experience. I myself have never spent anywhere near the amount of time with word searches as I have with this game. The price of 800 points is a little steep for what equates to a word search book though. At that price, with strong competition from games such as Puzzle Fighter and Tetris a few button presses away, it is hard to rate the game as ‘strongly recommend’. Should the price come down a little, or if you just absolutely love word search puzzles, then be sure to pick it up. |
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