by Adam Feneley

Created on: June 08, 2010   Last Updated: June 09, 2010

Cost: $0.00 (US) £0.00 (UK)

Overall rating: 4/5

Quick Verdict: A simple and addictive word game. Makes you think, good changeable settings and various mode of game play means you don’t get bored too quickly with repetition.

Gameplay:

Scramble 2 is a word game a bit like scrabble but where you have to find words within a grid of letters within a time limit you get points for each word, the longer it is the more points you get.

When opening the game it takes a few seconds to get going with an advert from the creators, Zynga (who made Farmville, Texas hold em’ poker and treasure isle which are played by millions on facebook). The App subsequently can also be played on facebook on a computer. On the home page of the game, you can see a leader board of you friends scores and ranks on the bottom of the screen. There is also the option to invite friends to play directly from the games menu.

Due to it being a free app there are some adds, when you load initially there tend to be some, and at the bottom of the menu there is a small banner with a color advert, but nothing too annoying.

In the top left of the menu is a profile button; this displays your facebook image, your personal best score, the longest word you have found, total words found and your level.

The top left of the main menu is a settings button. On this you can alter the size of the grid (4x4 or 5x5), the time of one game (2 or 3 minutes), turn on and off the word of the day notifications, turn sound on and off, turn the accelerometer on and off (if you turn your device into landscape mode, the board flips round), and turn off or on the notifications when you win a trophy.

There are 4 game modes: Play solo, Play and Pass, Challenge and Play Online.

Play solo is just a game of you against the clock were you find as many words in the time limit as possible and try and beat your personal bests and win some of the achievements set by the game. A good hint if you are stuck for words: tap two corners of the board at once and it will rotate the board so you can see a different perspective.

Play and Pass is for playing with two, three of four players on one device. You basically play a game each and the game tells you who has won. Seems a little unnecessary, you could just play 4 games and each remember you score, but another feature non the less.

Challenge is a way to play private matches against your facebook friends. You click it and it give you a choice of people you select a friend and challenge them for a game, you set a score and see if they can beat it.

Play online is my favourite setting. You can play online against normally around 50 – 150 (dependent on the time of day) other people and your score is ranked at the end of the game. It is extremely tricky to get into the top 5 so it’s a very good challenge, which makes you think and adds a competitive edge to the game.

Disadvantages:

* Slow load up at around 10 seconds and then occasionally get annoying pop up add for other games created by Zynga.

* The gameplay although simple and effective can get quite boring and repetitive after long stints, not as enthralling as an action game, but makes you think.  

In Conclusion: 

I would definitely recommend the download of scramble 2 by Zynga. It is a well linked, simple yet challenging game which gives your brain a good workout and the online mode is very good.

I wouldn’t pay a huge amount of money for it if it was on the app store at a price. but it's definitely worth it for free, a great game for a boring tube or bus journey at the end of the day.

I hope this review has been of help…

Please see my articles for more iPhone / iPod Touch reviews

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