Scrabble is one of those word games that gets you hooked very easily. Once you start a game, putting it away until the entire board has been exhausted is quite a challenge. In fact, this is true for all word games in general. One such addictive game is the iOS app Hooked on Words. This game comes with the mass appeal of Scrabble and a challenge for all English lovers.

The iOS app has been optimized for the iPhone 5 and is compatible with the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad, requiring iOS 5.0 or higher. Developed by Plasmaworks LLC, it comes with 4 single player and one multiplayer mode. The single player ones are times, collapse, scramble and standard.

In the standard mode, you can take as much time as you want to make words. On the other hand, the times mode limits your time to 2 minutes only, to get your creative juices flowing faster. In the collapse mode, you have a time limit of 2 minutes and the blanks created by used tiles is filled with new ones. The scramble mode limits both the tiles and the time. Within a limit of 2 minutes, you have to play with the given tiles only.

The multiplayer mode is the fun one. If you wish to challenge a particular friend, you can do so using your Faebook login. If you wish to merely practice, then you can play against any random player on the app. These games are for tokens, which act as the currency for multiplayer games. Without these, you are ineligible to challenge anyone.

The gameplay of Hooked on Words is what makes the game so unique. New tiles are constantly falling from the top of your screen. To create a new word, you have to swipe your finger across all these alphabets, linking them together. These letters must be adjacent to each other. No other restrictions. Hence, you have a large number of options in terms of the words you can create from the tiles. Once you get started, your creative juices will be flowing in no time. Especially for the timed modes, wherein the flow will be much more rapid.

There is a tutorial to help you get started in case you find yourself lost at any point of the game. For scoring, the scheme is quite similar to Scrabble. There are specific points for each alphabet and double letters and double words exist as well. Additionally, a certain word is present on the top left corner of your screen for each game. If you manage to find that word in the course of your game, then you are awarded a bonus. There are leaderboards to keep track of your scores too.

While the game can get highly addictive and immersive, there are numerous ads that are highly distracting. To get rid of them, there’s an in- app purchase for $0.99. The app Hooked on Words is free of cost but comes with a number of in- app purchases. It indeed is the perfect game for those who wish to improve their vocabulary or test it.

Good: Various modes, simple gameplay

Bad: Numerous distracting ads

Worth Having Application –  Download the App