Can a game called Word Examination Laboratory for Dynamic Extraction and Reassessment be our Daily App? You bet it can.
Take word games like Scrabble and Scramble, add the manic grouping and dropping of games like Bejewelled and Bubble Bash, and what you have is W.E.L.D.E.R. (Word Examination Laboratory for Dynamic Extraction and Reassessment). Forget the full form – we have not been able to memorise it yet – and just download and enjoy the game. It is a 19.2 MB download and while it works just dandy on all iOS devices, we liked it most on the iPad with all its screen real estate.
And that is because at its heart, like many great games, W.E.L.D.E.R is basically a simple affair that sucks you into it with its easy gameplay before gently upping the ante and showing how difficult even simplicity can be. You are presented with a grid of letters and have to create words from them by getting the letters in the right order. You can move letters that are next to each other (above, below or diagonally) by making them swap places. Each word made has to be made of a minimum four letters and you get a score for each word made, depending on the length, bonus points and the value of each letter. There are even blank tiles on the board which you can convert into any letter you wish to help form a word.
Each time you move a letter or assign a letter to a blank tile, you have said to have made a move or in W.E.L.D.E.R.-speak, a swap. Your task at each level is simple – to make a certain number of words within an allotted number of swaps. As you move up levels, things get tougher, but you also get additional facilities like the ability to move groups of letters, spell words backwards and so on. You can keep tabs on how many swaps and words you have left by looking at the bottom of the screen, which keeps score. Incidentally, if you do score heavily, you might get some extra swaps to complete your level – so look to score heavily whenever possible.
All of which makes W.E.L.D.E.R. sound like yet another Scrabble clone. Well, it does have a difference. Every time you make a word, the tiles used to make the word move off the screen totally and are replaced by the ones above that drop into the places vacated at them, even as a new set of tiles slip into the empty slots at the top of the screen. See what we meant by the Bejewelled effect? A spin is also added by the presence of “hot” tiles which cannot be moved (well, they are too hot to touch, goes the game’s rationale) and broken tiles which are similarly impervious to movement and also stop a blank tile next to them from moving. You can even check the meanings of the words you have made and of course, post words you have made on Facebook and Twitter.
Simple, very well presented with good graphics and some eerily mechanical sounds (you should hear some of those tiles move!), W.E.L.D.E.R. is a dream come true for all those into word games, and supremely addictive. For $1.99, we think it is a terrific deal, especially as you can go on playing it any number of times, just to test yourself and of course, also check out how your friends are doing via Game Center. We have three words of advice to all those who have not played it: download, download, download!
Cost: $1.99
Get it from: iTunes App Store
