Words With Friends
Just recently I started craving a good word game. I personally love word games and I’ve played a few good ones on the iPhone but most of them got old pretty quick. I was considering buying Scrabble but I had heard about this game called “Words With Friends” so I decided to check it out.
Words with Friends looks and plays exactly like Scrabble. You have 7 letters which you are to use to make words on a board. As you use your letters you are given new letters. The object of the game is to have the most points at the end of the game. The game ends when all of the reserve letters run out and both players use all of their letters. Words With Friends is played with only one other person. You can either play online against someone you know, online against a randomly selected person, or on the same iPhone by passing it back and forth.
So far I’ve only played against random people over the internet and this is the reason why I have become so addicted to Words With Friends. This game is perfect for when you are on-the-go or even sitting in the office. I love the fact that you can start more than one game and with push notifications you are notified when it’s your turn. So for example, I’m sitting at my desk, working on something, my phone vibrates letting me know it’s my turn. Most of the time the games are slow, this is why it’s so great that you can start more than one game. Usually I have at least 5 games going and I’m just doing everyday things while playing this extended game of Scrabble. Some games I’ve completed in less than an hour, some games have taken almost 2 days.
At the time of writing this review I am currently addicted to Words With Friends. It was everything I was craving in a word game. I don’t suspect it will get old either because it’s not something overwhelming, it’s just a simple game of Scrabble played online or with a friend and you can play it at your own pace. This is why Words With Friends works so perfectly on the iPhone.
EDGE removed from iTunes?
This is really bad news. Kotaku is reporting that EDGE has been removed from the iTunes App store. Why? Can we say frivolous lawsuit?
Turns out there was this old gaming company called Edge Games owned by Tim Langdell. He claims to have copyrighted the word Edge as far as it’s use in gaming goes. This is not the first time he has forced a company to change it’s name. Remember when Soulcaliber used to be called Soul Edge? Namco was forced to change it for the same reason.
The biggest joke in all of this is Edge Gaming has not released a game since 1994. So just how is an iPhone/iPod Touch game made this year going to be confused with that company?
Now the makers of EDGE are in negotiations to get use of the name back, but my question is why should they need it? Did I judge really rule they needed to change the name? Or did Apple just see someone claiming to have a copyright and remove the game without further evidence?
Either way, all this is doing is depriving gamers of a great game.
Eliss (iPhone)
I had first heard about Eliss from a friend suggesting it to everyone but I was still a little skeptical after seeing some screenshots of the game. From the screens it seemed too complicated and I wasn’t really even sure what the game was about. I even late saw a video of it and wasn’t sure what was going on.
As with most iPhone games I just decided to get it on a whim. I wasn’t sure if I would even like it but I trusted the people who suggested it so I went ahead and purchased it for the wonderful price of $2.99.
The main concepts of Eliss are actually very simple. It may look intimidating but it’s really not. The object is to combine the circles that randomly appear with each other to make bigger circles. Once a circle is big enough you drag it into a “pod” that also appears at random. The pod then disappears. Each level has a specific amount of times you are to do this and once you do that amount the level ends and you move on to the next. The second concept in the game is splitting the circles to make them smaller. There will be smaller pods that appear so you must split the large circles by using two fingers and dragging them apart.
The way you die in this game is when you let the different colored circles touch each other. The longer they touch the more your life goes down. In the later levels there is a lot going on on the screen so it can be very hard to keep the circles from touching. I even found myself holding my iPhone in ways I didn’t know where possible just so that I could use four fingers.
I’m currently on the 10th level and there is 25 levels total. One last thing I want to mention is the art-style of Eliss. It’s very plain and simple but this plain and simple look is what makes Eliss so appealing.
Overall I love Eliss and I highly recommend it. Don’t be intimidated, you will get the hang of it no later than 5 minutes in.
Check out the video below for the first 3 levels of Eliss: