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Forbes
26-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Word Play' Review: Scrabble Meets Balatro In This Bargain Game
Word Play combines Scrabble-like spelling with roguelike elements It's not all that often that word games are bobbing near the top of the Steam charts. Word Play has been hovering near the top of the Popular New Releases since it was launched earlier this month and after a few hours playing the game you can see why it's earned a 92% rating on Steam. Word Play is Scrabble meets Balatro, a game where you score more points for plonking down long words, but with a roguelike element to it. Like Balatro, you have to earn a target score before you can advance to the next round, and there are all kinds of perks and modifiers that can increase the score of the words you play. Also like Balatro, it's disgustingly addictive. Word Play Gameplay At first glance, World Play looks more like another popular word game: Boggle. Your letters are arranged in a four-by-four grid and you're looking for the longest words. Four letters is the minimum, but there are bonus points on offer for five-letter words or longer. The scoring is identical to Scrabble – ten points for the Q and Z, a point each for the vowels and common consonants, and so on. However, the real scoring comes from the perks (similar to Balatro's jokers) that you obtain as you move through the rounds. These add scoring bonuses to the words that you play or apply other power-ups that help you play. For example, you might get a 3x bonus score for the second letter in every word, or a +4 bonus if a word contains an E. Those bonuses can carry over, so the +4 becomes +8 if the next word you play also contains an E, for example. To get through the harder rounds, you're probably going to need to find perks that synergize with one another. For example, there's a perk that refreshes your letters if they don't contain an E, which works very nicely with the perk mentioned previously that cranks up your score for words containing that letter. In addition to the perks, there are upgrades (think Baltatro's tarot cards) that can permanently increase the score of letters in your bag or allow you to switch one letter for another. There are modifiers that vary the rules of the game, such as turning a Q into a Qu to make it easier to play. There are gifts and special tiles that make it easier to score points. Like Balatro, it all sounds quite complicated and finicky when you write it down, but after a few rounds of play you'll quickly get the hang of it. Winning Word Play Some rounds make you play the highlighted letters The aim of the game is to progress through the rounds, accumulating enough points to move on to the next, until you've won the final round. Some rounds have special rules, such as forcing you to play a certain letter or only allowing words that are six letters or longer to make it more challenging. You only get a limited number of 'plays' in each round, and there are only so many tiles in your bag, so you've got to make sure you're scoring heavily each time you play a word in the later rounds, or else you'll bust. It's a clever, cleanly designed game that will run on practically anything – PC, Mac or Steam Deck. The only thing I don't like about it is the irritating music, but that's easily switched off. For less than $10, Word Play is a B-A-R-G-A-I-N (yes, only ten points scored, but you should see my perks).
USA Today
16-02-2025
- General
- USA Today
Puzzle solutions for Sunday, Feb. 16, 2025
Puzzle solutions for Sunday, Feb. 16, 2025 Note: Most subscribers have some, but not all, of the puzzles that correspond to the following set of solutions for their local newspaper. CROSSWORDS USA TODAY crossword Play the USA TODAY Crossword Puzzle. Sunday Los Angeles Times crossword Sunday New York Times crossword Sunday Premier crossword SUDOKU Play the USA TODAY Sudoku Game. JUMBLE Answer: OUTAGE FONDUE ACCRUE MODIFY AGENDA UNLIKEHelping their child practice his subtraction was clearly starting to — MAKE A DIFFERENCE (Distributed by Tribune Content Agency) Cryptoquip IF SOME FOLKS POSITIONED THEMSELVES BENEATH AN ACTIVATED SPRINKLER SYSTEM, THEY WOULD BE UNDER THE WETTER. (Distributed by King Features) OTHER PUZZLES Boggle EMU OWL SWAN TERN LARK WREN EAGLE HERON PELICAN (Distributed by Tribune Content Agency) Lexigo AHEAD, DANCER, REACHES, SHADOW, WOODY (Distributed by Andrews McMeel) KenKen Scrabblegrams 7 Little Words SILVER SCULPTURE GARDENERS BRUNO MOZART AUTOMOBILES ANTARCTICA (Distributed by Andrews McMeel) Find the Words Anyone have a dictionary? (Distributed by Creators Syndicate) Kubok
