Windows Phone Xbox Live Review: TextTwist 2

TextTwist 2

There are plenty of excellent indie word games for Windows Phone (Words by Postal service, AlphaJax, and Spell It, to name a few). Even Wordament is available equally an indie title, though it will shortly exist jumping ship to Xbox Live land. But for now, there is a single Xbox Live game that involves finding words from an assortment of messages (i.e. anagrams): TextTwist ii from Game House. Does it scratch the word game itch as well as the other games I mentioned? Well, Text Twist ii honestly does contain both text and twisting, merely unfortunately it lacks the polish and magic of other Game Business firm titles or even its indie competitors.

Milkshake the cup

First off, TextTwist ii is much closer to Wordament than Words by Post – that is to say, it's based on or extremely close to Boggle rather than Scrabble. You won't find whatsoever crosswords here, nor do you need to build on the words you detect in whatsoever way. Text Twist 2 has several singled-out game modes, but all involve trying to notice words from an assortment of letters in order to earn points and/or complete a game round. There is no penalisation for guessing incorrectly or spelling a word non institute in the game's dictionary, although the timer continues to tick down in time modes.

The game gets its proper noun from the twist push button, which rearranges the letters on the histrion's 'rack,' then that he or she might better find a word when stumped. Twisting can be used an unlimited number of times per game. When y'all're really stumped, you can choose to Pass and skip to the next round in some game modes. Y'all only get ii passes per game, so use it judiciously (or more than likely, not at all). Modes that don't offer the Laissez passer option simply let players to Requite Upward and endeavour again.

Game Modes

TextTwist 2

TextTwist 2 has five game types, each offering a slightly unlike word finding feel and degree of challenge:

Standard: In this mode, players take two minutes per round to detect as many words every bit possible. Each word you locate appears in the box at the height of the screen. Yous're only allowed to find a gear up number of words of each length – for instance, v iii-letter of the alphabet words, four 4-letter words, and and then on, though the numbers vary by the assortment of messages given.
The truthful objective of Standard is to find a Bingo give-and-take – the longest word possible with the letters given. If y'all have 5 messages to work with, this would be a 5-letter of the alphabet word. At that place may exist multiple possibilities that use every letter of the alphabet provided, merely players tin simply enter one such word per round. After finding the Bingo give-and-take, yous can either continue to the next round or stay behind and notice shorter words to increase your score. Standard goes on forever until the player runs out of time, at which betoken the game ends.

Untimed: This way plays simply like Standard except it lacks a fourth dimension limit. Of course, in a game where at that place is already pretty much zip at stake and no real progression, removing the one element of challenge beyond simply finding the words doesn't assist.

Alphabetic character Mania: Here you need to spell multiple words in society to accomplish a sure target number of messages used inside the time limit. The target number increases steadily as players achieve new rounds.

Lightning: The object of each round is to find five specific words from their corresponding letter of the alphabet sets with a time limit of i:20. If you don't select any letters, the letters of the target give-and-take will slowly exist revealed. Finding the discussion without letting all of the letters appear results in a small time bonus.

Daily Give-and-take: A daily challenge to find a 7-letter give-and-take. You can likewise find a unmarried word with 3-,4-,5-, and 6- letters for additional points. After finding the target vii-alphabetic character word, either the game ends or you can go back to detect the shorter words. Daily Word is a prissy thought in concept, but information technology really does force yous to wait exactly 24 hours or more before playing again. It really should let players return whatever time the next calendar day rather than expecting u.s.a. to call back or estimate what time we played the previous day.

To progress or non to progress

TextTwist 2

It'southward tough to intendance nearly TextTwist 2 games for a number of reasons. Master among them is the lack of stakes. Unlike Boggle or the indie Scrabble clones I mentioned before, there's no multiplayer, which would provide an incentive to care about the game'southward outcome. It's incredibly easy to cheat using an anagram website like this i. Sure, information technology takes the sport out, but at to the lowest degree you're non ruining anyone else'due south experience since it but affects you lot.

A single thespian anagram game could still work, but it needs a good progression system – something for players to work toward and intendance virtually. Here players tin unlock a total of 10 Fun Facts, one for every 100 words they spell. Ten pieces of trivia that are highly spread out is not peculiarly compelling – I could hop online and detect 50 or 100 interesting facts with far, far less effort. The only other metagame element is trying to find 5,000 words for an Achievement, which is both laborious and slow.

Overarching elements aside, fifty-fifty individual games are merely dull, deadening, tiresome. Each round of merely about every game type is identical to the one before it except for the assortment of messages players receive. Letter Mania at least gets harder each round, simply fifty-fifty then, reaching circular three or five is no more fun than just starting a new game. Where'due south the sense of adventure? Maybe the developers should have made a game virtually something exciting like lion taming, or at least chartered accountancy.

Put a handbag over its head

TextTwist 2

The other element contributing to TextTwist 2's massive boringness is the presentation. The menus are among the worst in an Xbox Alive game. Players accept to press down and hold a choice to pick it instead of just tapping. An icon-based interface with larger buttons and instant option would work so much better. Plus yous're commonly forced to pick Continue betwixt rounds and fifty-fifty only to meet the Game Over screen, a redundant and awkward stride. TextTwist 2 started life equally a PC game, and it feels like the interface wasn't suitably adapted for mobile phones.

Then at that place's the graphics and sound. The visuals are generally competent but entirely sterile. In Standard and Untimed Games, the table of words that tin can and have been establish is awkwardly laid out though, requiring the player to manually curlicue left or correct to view them all.

TextTwist ii'south sound is more offensive than its looks. The music is utterly horrible and slumber-inducing, as if the game'south boringness was a deliberate conclusion that the developers wanted to hammer home. Worse, you can't plough it off without also disabling sound effects – a common flaw in Game House titles. I recommend starting up a peppy song in the phone'southward media actor before launching the game if you want to go on your eyes open up.

Achievements

Thanks to the cheating websites I mentioned before, none of TextTwist two'south Achievements present an actual challenge. The hard part is actually caring enough to spell 1,000 and and then v,000 words for the two associated Achievements; I'thou nevertheless working on those. The game tracks word count in the Statistics screen, at least.

Overall Impression

I really wanted to like TextTwist 2, but it'south just too mediocre to concur my involvement. In the absence of multiplayer, a game like this absolutely needs a creative presentation and metagame. Without that, information technology's just mechanically doing the aforementioned basic thing over and over again. Upcoming Xbox Live game Wordament shares similar mechanics, just should be far more addicting. Game House has published several fantastic Xbox Live games like Doodle Jump, Sally's Salon, and Tiki Towers, so let'southward forgive them this dud.

TextTwist 2 costs $2.99 and at that place is a free trial. Get it here on the Market place, I guess.

The AT&T version of Surface Duo is now getting Android 11

It's here

The AT&T version of Surface Duo is at present getting Android 11

After a very long wait, the original Surface Duo is now eligible to receive its over-the-air Bone update to Android 11. Here is what is new and fixed with the biggest update all the same for Microsoft's showtime dual-screen Android device.