Thomas and the Magical Words Review
Who wouldn’t want to grow up in a magical pet shop? Tommy Broombucket is not living up to his full potential as an up and coming wizard apprentice to his Uncle Artem the pet shop owner. All Tommy has to do is deliver pets to customers, clean bat cages, feed unicorns and do well in wizard school. Alas, Tommy does not do well in any of those things upsetting his uncle so much that he puts Tommy in a book of spells to fend for himself.
It is up to you to help Tommy escape this imprisonment by creating a word path to exit the book. In a Scrabble like fashion you make up words from the given letters at the top of the screen. Each new word must connect to the old words forming a link or path to the gate to the right. You click on a letter and drag it to the game board, place it on a square and when a word is made the pink letters will turn green. There is a Stamina gauge that goes down when you do not make a word, but will fill up again when you do form a word. The more dots on the letter pieces will garner you more points. The helps on the right top are locked until you save an animal by forming your words to their island. The helps are hammers, clear, magic tile and hint hat.
There are 2 modes of play in Thomas and the Magical Words: Adventure and Survival. In Adventure the time fills up when you make a word and you can easily complete a level at your leisure. The Survival mode is locked until you pass several levels in the Adventure mode. The Survival mode has the Stamina Gauge continuously running out so your play must be made quickly or you will lose the level. In this mode there are a lot more extras and is a more exciting play. There are certain squares on the game board that will give you more points (2x, 3x, etc.).
In between the levels are mini puzzles to give you a break from thinking up words and to try and get more helps. The game is to guess what the keyword is at the top of the page. You get certain number of guesses on what the letters might be in order to figure out the keyword.
Thomas and the Magical Words is a wonderful and educational Mac game for both children and adults. It can be easy if you make very short words, but the trick is to make the longest word possible from the letters given to you, and on top of all that rescue cute little animals and Tommy on the different islands throughout the Book of Spells. I really enjoy playing the Survival mode with its many extras and the timed factor. Try out both modes and see which one fits you the best, but do try it. Don’t let the cartoon characters and story line hold you back. They are just as fun to view as playing this Scrabble like word game.
Feature of Thomas and the Magical Words:
-Adventure and Survival Modes
-48 Levels
-Guess the Word Mini Game
-Unravel the Exciting Story
Rating: 
Text Twist 2 Review
Word games are always fun to play and are great workouts for your brain. Lately the current buzzwords for those who want to stay young and vital are mental fitness and brain training. Exercising your brain is in and Mac word game Text Twist 2 will do just that and more for your overall well-being.
Everyone is different and Text Twist 2 takes that into consideration by creating 3 modes of play to fit all types of people. In the Lightning mode you must use all the letters offered to make a word before the time runs out. Some people are good at this mode, but others, like me, need more time to figure out the word. What’s great about this game is you can twist the letters around so maybe you’ll have better
luck making your word. The crossword puzzle mode is in the crossword configuration and you make words using the blocks presented both vertically and horizontally. Word of the Day will give you letters every day to form your words.
The classic play is time or untimed depending on how you are feeling that day. You are presented with a group of letters and you click on the one letter at a time to form words. The clicked letters will go into boxes above the available letters and you click again to submit your word. At the very top of the screen you will find empty squares of 3 or more. Once you make any accepted word, your word will be placed in the boxes. Once you fill up all the 3 letter words, the game will not take anymore even if you come up with a good word. You need to go on and make 4 or more letter words to fill up the rest of the boxes. If you are lucky enough to get the bingo word, you can go on to the next level. Most of the time the bingo word uses more than 4 letters. However if you do not get the bingo word and your brain is spent, you might want to use one of the couple of passes available to you, but remember the object of this game is to form as many words as possible.
Text Twist 2 is a great game for the whole family. I had fun just playing by myself and will return to this game. It is not only enjoyable and educational, but it’s addictive as well. If you are into word games, try twisting some of the letters and form your own words. Your brain will thank you for it.
Features of Text Twist 2:
-More Than 25,000 Words
-3 Modes
-Great Graphics
Rating:
Merriam Webster Spell-Jam Review
Let’s face it, not too many of us aspire to be the national spelling bee champion, but it’s still fun to compete and possibly win on the Merriam Webster Spell-Jam competition. This game will take you through different sets to prepare you to become the preeminent winner.
There are 3 modes of play in this game: Practice, Game Show and Competition. Practice will give you 25 words to spell, and it will take you through the session 3 times. Hopefully you will be able to spell all the words correctly by the third time. In all three modes you are able to choose from Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. A commentator gives you the word, and you have 4 options before spelling it. You may ask to repeat the word, give you a sentence, definition, or origin or get all 4 hints. I found that repeating the word and the definition helps you the most unless you know Latin or Greek
then the origin may aid you in correctly responding. The sidebar will show all your correct answers in green and the misspelled ones in red.
The Game Show mode is probably the most interesting since you can win money and have helps besides the 4 hints available in Practice mode. They are Pass to skip the word, Uniques will give you letters jumbled, 1st letters give you the first 3 letters of the word, Consonants gives you only the consonants, Vowels gives you just the vowels, and Word Choice will offer you 4 words to choose the correct spelling. You have the option to play up to 200 rounds of spelling for this mode, and you can win from $100 to $1000.
In the Competition mode you may add up to 7 players to compete against you and will bring up each player through an underground elevetor to the podium. The most difficult part of this section is that you cannot redo your typing. You must get the spelling correct the first time you type it on the board.
In between the game levels there are Speed Rounds where you spell as many words correctly in 1 minute. Here more than any other part of the game you need to have excellent typing skills in addition to outstanding spelling prowess. I found this section to be the most exhilarating.
I found this word game very interesting. I think it can improve both your spelling and typing abilities in a fun way. The difficulty levels are appropriate, but not even close to the National Spelling Bee tournament (luckily), and the beginner’s level is too difficult for young children but should be fine for 8 year olds and up. The intermediate level includes a few commonly used foreign words, and the advanced incorporates even more esoteric vocabulary. I thought it was curious to use the same words in the different modes. For instance in the advanced Game Show level they used the word liege and it came up again in Competition. I'm sure all you RPG players can spell this word easily.
With spell check available everywhere, there appears to be no need to have a strong spelling skill, but everyone will take pride in spelling well in this fun and educational Mac game. This game is not for everyone, but if you are into word games, this one is different enough to make it appealing and entertaining.
Features of Merriam Webster Spell-Jam:
-Fun Game play
-3 Modes: Practice, Game Show and Competition
-Multi-player game play
Rating:
Bookworm Deluxe Review
Anyone who loves Scrabble (and who doesn’t?) will enjoy Bookworm Deluxe, a Mac game for all the lexicon gurus out there. For a word game there is a lot of action involved in playing this puzzle. So be ready to put your thinking caps on and go for an enjoyable couple of hours, because it will draw you into their mind bending brain exercises.
Lex, the green bookworm, at the sidebar, greets and instructs you at the beginning of this game, throughout the play he makes encouraging comments, and he warns you of the eminent danger waiting ahead of you. There are Scrabble-like tiles in 7 columns with either 7 or 8 pieces in each one. The columns are staggered so one tile can touch part of 4 tiles on the sides and 1 above and 1 below. At the most there are 6 directions to make a word. The letter tiles on the sides and top and bottom of the game board have less options.
The object of the game is to make the longest word possible by using the tiles that touch either up, down, and to the side. You link the tiles by clicking on each one to create a word. You can either click submit on the sidebar or double click on the last tile to present the word to Lex. If accepted, he opens his mouth and munches on the tiles. The replacement tiles will drop from the top to refill the 52 tile board. If 
Lex feels your words are too small, he’ll refill a letter with a fire tile. The fire tiles will be glowing and crackling like it is on fire. If you do not use this tile right away, it will burn through the letter below it for each word made. If this fire tile reaches the bottom of the game board, it will burn the entire library and ending the game. The funniest part of this disaster is Lex’s stunned, incredulous expression. It’s worth playing this game just for that scene.
Like Scrabble each letter tile has a different point value. The dots or lack of one located at the lower right hand side of the tile will show that J, Qu, X, V, and Z will earn you more points. Some words will produce the dictionary definition on the sidebar. However, with concentrating on producing new words, you tend to ignore reading the definitions you already know. The color tiles will get you higher points, and so will the bonus word given by Lex. You need to strategize a little to maneuver letters around to be able to make the bonus word. This will garner you more points toward getting to the next level or rank. You will be amused by the different cartoon characters you are labeled as when 
you complete each level.
When you are stuck and can no longer create a word, you can click on Lex the bookworm to scramble the letters. However, use caution with this move because it will create fire tiles to hinder your play.
Bookworm Deluxe has 2 modes to play, the untimed and Action games. The untimed is still challenging but it is nothing compared to Action. Action is just that. There are more fire tiles and they move down the column much faster and are animated or seem like they are constantly in motion.
Bookworm Deluxe reminds me of the Mac game Flip Words but is a lot more difficult and fun. Lex is entertaining and supportive of your play, the fire tiles add a challenge that enhances your game, the graphics are brightly colored and clear, and the sound effects are perfect even the burping from Lex. This game is for everyone, it will sharpen your word forming skills, and strengthen your mind. On top of all that, it is just plain fun. Try not to get burned.
Features of Bookworm Deluxe:
-Untimed or Action
-Bonus Words
-Burning Tiles
-Reward Tiles
-Lex, the Bookworm
-Hall of Fame
Rating:
Boggle Review
Get your thinking caps on and be ready to flex your brain muscles in this fun and energetic Mac word game Boggles. Based on the board game this video version is fast and challenging to play for all ages. So get ready to press the bubble and make as many words as you can.
The play is to click on the bubble to scramble the letters. From there you make as many words as possible and as quickly as you can. You can decide whether to make 3 or 4 letter words or longer. The longer the word the better and you’ll receive more points. There are 3 modes of play in Boggle. Easy and medium are easy plays and good for young kids but still enjoyable. The real fun begins in the hard 
mode. This mode is difficult and can be played with older children and adults. You can enjoy this fast action game with your friends and family. You can have 2-4 players on Boggle or play against the computer.
The game board is good with clear letters and graphics. Sometimes clearing letters to start over took some of your precious time on the board. The only annoying factor to this game is the announcer with encouraging short statements. I guess it is good for kids but it can get monotonous with the same phrases rallying your play.
Playing with others will give you the opportunity to yell “Boggle!” I’ve never played the board game, but if it’s as good as the Mac version, I’ll have to check it out. Go exercise your mental fitness by playing this great word game.
Features of Boggle:
-Words and Letters
-3 Modes
-Up to 4 Players
-Family Fun
Rating:
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