Word Jolt ($0.99, download) is a word game that takes the familiar formula of making words out of random letters and adds its own twists, including a Tetris-like race to keep the board from filling up with letters. It’s a solid word game that competes well with similar games WordPops (review), Chicktionary, and Sextuple Word Challenge (review). We are rating it a 7.0 out of 10, recommended.
The basic game play of Word Jolt is to form words out of random letters. From there, two game modes, Arcade and Puzzle, determine the style of play.
Puzzle Mode was my favorite of the two modes. The object is to progress to the next level by either: 1. Spelling out the Target Word, or 2. Accruing enough points. There’s an added twist: every time you spell a word, an entire row of 8 letters is dropped into the game. You’ll have to figure out a way to move to the next level before the board fills up, which is inevitable because, unless you’re a word genius, you most likely won’t spell 8-letter words each turn.
I enjoy Puzzle Mode because it’s the more challenging of the two. It’s a dance of handling all the factors, eg, go after the target word or just spell as large as words as possible to score points?
Arcade mode is similar, but instead of 8 letters dropped after each word, they are slowly dropped one-by-one over time. I found it too easy to play, and quickly grew bored from the lack of challenge.
The graphics and animations are nothing spectacular. They like they were ported from somewhere between the days of NES and Super Nintendo. I did discover a few odd quirks, such as unreadable text appearing over graphics during a bonus level. Also, there are instructions that appear to be from the desktop computer version of the game. The instructions tell you to “click on” or “type in” letters–but there is no keyboard in the game. The game is not polished, but it is playable.
The game features various sound effects for different actions, but no background music. Sound can be turned off in the game menu.
My main complaint with Word Jolt is the size of the letters in the game. I would not say I have fat fingers, but often it was hard to select the letters. There are many quirks to the game that involve the iPhone’s screen size; it makes me wonder if the developers factored it in when porting their game. It should be noted that these problems are minor though, and after a little practice I was able to play he game as intended.
Conclusion
Despite some sloppy design, Word Jolt is a challenging word game perfect for word geeks looking for a new challenge. 7.0 out of 10.
Name: Word Jolt
Developers: Sudo Labs
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Price: $1.99
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