When I saw that a friend of mine started playing Wheel of Fortune on Facebook, I nearly jumped off of my couch with excitement, because I have always loved watching that game on TV and fancied myself a pretty good couch Wheel of Fortune player. So, the thought of being able to compete in the game with my friends got me clicking pretty quickly. When I got to the game itself, I noticed it was in beta, which took down my expectations a little, but I was still super excited to play. The sound effects were pretty authentic, especially the little chime to start each puzzle, and even down to the wheel spinning, which, when coupled with the true to game graphics, really can get a fan in the mood to solve some puzzles.

Each game gets a “normal” puzzle round and a bonus round. This was a little too quick for my taste. Understandably, the point of social games is to give a quick escape from the everyday humdrum, and some have been quite successful with very short play time, but it would be nice in this case to have one extra round. That wouldn’t make the game drawn out and it would provide a redeeming factor for those sparse occasions when spin mishaps, lack of common letters, or just too many wrong guesses creates an unsolved first puzzle. The redeeming factor to having only one puzzle before the bonus round is the ability to play the bonus round regardless of whether or not the first puzzle is solved. This, in comparison to other TV game shows made Facebook games, is a most satisfying feature that ensures players aren’t left with a sort of unfinished business feeling and no score to compete with.

The puzzles themselves are, for the most part, quite solvable, but with enough challenge to make the game worthwhile. The varying lengths of the puzzles, though, are another platform for discussion about adding another puzzle into each game, simply to make the potential scores between games more even, because some puzzles are quite long and then some are two short words. However, the supply of puzzles seems to be pretty vast as I have yet to see a repeat.

The social aspect is encouraged by asking for help when the bonus round goes unsolved (because they don’t show the solution), conversely attempting friends’ unsolved bonus puzzles, and of course competing scores. The number of puzzles per day is limited, which encourages both return visits each day to get a fix and using currency (“wheel gold” or “wheel bucks”) to buy more. Other ways to use currency to play is to purchase more help in the form of “Reveal a Letter,” “Free Guess,” “Timeout” or “Double Bucks.” These can be helpful in playing a game where none of the usual letters are pupping up, or when landing on “Lose a Turn” or “Bankrupt,” but sometimes kind of feel like cheating.

A new feature that has been added is the ability to send personal puzzles as greetings to your friends. This increases the fun side of the social aspect as well as provides more opportunity to play the game when daily episodes run out. The game is definitely more fun when more of your friends play because there is simply more to do, but it is definitely fun to play whether at the free level (at which some Facebook games do get frustrating), and it still is a good game to try out for old fans, new fans, and future fans of Wheel alike.

Apple Rating: 4+ (No Objectionable Material)
Category: Puzzle Game
Publisher: Apostek Software
Release Date: August 18, 2010

Word Quest has found the sweet spot between challenging and fun. Available on both the iPhone and the iPad –I reviewed the iPhone version. Word Quest is a word search game that has found a way to integrate a childhood paper bound game with modern touch screen technology. For the most part it really works well. The game features multiple variations of puzzles and has tons of replay revalue. At $.99, it’s quite a deal! The gameplay is addictive and the simple design makes Word Quest a quality title. It doesn’t feature an extensive sound track or overly flashy graphics because it’s not trying to be anything other than a word search game. For a someone who loves word games, this is exactly the game it should be.

Word Quest for the iPhone is not with out its faults though. The touch screen makes tracing the words awkward and it can sometimes feel frustrating. Racing the clock to find and then trace hidden words on a small iPhone screen makes Word Quest in to a good game with a clunky interface. This was not enough to ruin the game and I found Word Quest to be fun. The game might be better suited for the iPad with a bigger screen.

Word Quest had many word categories with both an easy and a hard mode and players can share their scores using the global leaderboard. Players can also take advantage of Twitter and Facebook integration.

At $.99 for either the iPhone and iPad versions, I give Word Quest a BUY.

BUY

I have very fond childhood memories of playing Scrabble with my cousin at Grandma’s house. I loved words, puzzles and games and I still do. Flash forward to 2010. Unfortunately, though I come from a long line of puzzle word game loving people, I am horrible at Scrabble. I still play word games with my cousin. He lives in Texas and I am several hundred miles away so, we play over our iPhones. I still lose every game but it’s not about the winning as much as the playing. My husband says the more I play, the better I’ll get. We’ll see.

I jumped at the chance to try the new word game, HexaLex. The game is done in the spirit of Scrabble but instead of blocks of tiles, player draw hexagons which add another dimension of gameplay as well as another dimension of difficulty to the game. HexaLex is hard! Fortunately, HexaLex is also very fun.

HexaLex has several great features:

The in game dictionary is a great addition to the game. Its a convient way to test out words without having to place tiles on the board. Scrabble and Words With Friends could really learn from this!

The online game play is a natural feeling way to play with others. While it’s an update to the original, I would have been disappointed to play only with AI opponants.

HexaLex is a great new approach to a traditional game. If you like Scrabble, Words with Friends and other word games, HexaLex is worth a look.

The AI in the single player mode, is challenging and great for having fun when you just don’t feel like being too social. On a more serious note, the sound is rather uninspired. I expected more than just tile moving swishes and chimes. However, for $1.99, it’s hard to be too disappointed.

HexaLex for the iPhone is a must buy!

Pogo

One of our favorite social gaming sites, Pogo.com, is expanding its download library with two new games based on the classic favorite board games Scrabble and Clue.

Scrabble Tour has players stretching their vocabularies across premium score spaces, using tough letters to try to optimize their scores. As a downloadable game, it also features different modes of play, including solo play and story mode. Solo mode allows players to hone their skills and provides an arena for self competition and story mode takes players on a U.S. tour across themed cities such as Las Vegas and New York City where they can shoot for awards including trophies for multiple 5 letter words. Price: $19.99

Clue Secrets & Spies plunges players in the role of a Police Operatives Global Organization (POGO) agent, jet setting around the world in an attempt to halt the shady doings of Agent Black. This mystery game takes us through several episodes in five locations finding a multitude of hidden objects and stopping the spies in their tracks. When the game launches on April 20th, the first episodes of Clue Secrets & Spies are available for free from Pogo.com! As more episodes come available, additional episodes will become available for purchase periodically.

Both games recommended for players 12 and up and available exclusively at Pogo.com.

Even with near universal acclaim coming back with the feedback, they still made a few improvements:

-“More ways to play” – There are now THREE entirely new games modes for you (providing hours and hours of honest-to-goodness fun).

-“More platforms” – Surely. Though Denki are remaining tight-lipped on what these may be.

-“More characters, troops, maps, music and words” – Yes, no, there’s loads already, si senor and we have the best dictionary in there already.

-“More cowbell” – Ha ha. Xylophone, yes; cowbell, not so much. [Ed. note: Ha.]

-“Less timer” – Sorted.

Denki have also released a video to go along with this little info release. Take a look!

PopCap Games today announced the immediate availability of Bookworm Adventures, Volume 2 for the PC. The sequel to the 2007 original takes players into three new literary landscapes with a bevy of new features and lexical challenges. Players can now once again take on the role of the brave and charming Bookworn, Lex, and lead him through a new series of books on a fresh, vocabularious adventure. The three new books, “Fractured Fairytales,” “The Monkey King” and “Astounding Planet,” each offer a complete story and 10-chapter adventure.

“Bookworm Adventures Volume 2 is the long-awaited sequel to one of the world’s most popular word games,” said Ben Rotholtz, VP of Marketing at PopCap, “and in this new collection we’re delivering dozens of hours of entertainment to delight even the most seasoned vocabulary aficionados.”

New Features in Bookworm Adventures Volume 2 include:

*3 all-new books of ten chapters each: “Fractured Fairytales,” “The Monkey King” and “Astounding Planet”!
*All-new infinite Replay mode! Pick a book, fight foes and score big points!
*6 mini-games, including all-new “Mutant Words,” “Golden Coins” and “Word Up”!
*Battle more than 130 ferocious new foes while wielding over 20 terrific new treasures!
*Companions – Literary figures join Lex and battle by his side including Mother Goose, the Cheshire Cat and author H.G.
Wells, each adorning Lex with their own unique gifts.
*Rainbow Tiles – New potent wild card tiles allow you to build the gigantic words of your dreams!
*Arena mode – Spell quickly to defeat your toughest enemies!
*Achievements – earn trophies, points and badges!

Initially available on PopCap.com, STEAM and iWin, Bookworm Adventures 2 will carry a list price of US$19.95 for the full, three-book deluxe edition. Beginning on August 19, individual books of the game will become available on PopCap.com.

Just Make Words… You will be scored on the finished 7 letters, however many words are made within it. You can only use each word once throughout the whole game. AND they do show you which letters are coming up next. Enjoy!

MochiAds and Dictionary.com have teamed up to sponsor a new word flash game contest for the summer, with a top prize of $7,000! So get out your creativity caps, word brains, and get us thinking! We will also feature the winning game(s) when announced at the end of the summer on GamingAngels.com.
Here are the rules:
* Must be a word game or a game themed around words and puzzles
* Must incorporate the MochiAds Version Control and Encryption service
* Must be distribution-enabled and use MochiAds Leaderboards
* Must run MochiAds advertisements
* Must be entered in MochiAds before midnight August 14th, 2009 PST
* Must be tagged with “dictionary.com”

Here are the prizes:
* 1st Place – $7,000
* 2nd Place – $4,000
* 3rd Place – $2,000
* Honorable Mention (x2) – $1,000 each

This contest began on June 9th and ends on August 14th!
Entries currently being accepted!
Check out the 'Official Contest Rules