"A Big Disappointment"

A Big Disappointment
My real disappointment was that for some unknown reason I was actually expecting this game to be about words and their meanings. It must have been something about "will test your word knowledge....and vocabulary". My mistake, I just misunderstood.

What it is
Very simple word games that require only knowing a word and its spelling, nothing about meaning is required. No story. 90 second game play only. The games are very basic. The stylus input recognition can be somewhat inconsistent. It's difficult to “win” a 90 second game if your input is misinterpreted.

How it Works
When you start up the game, orienting it in book fashion, you get Margot on the left screen while the touch screen pictures a sheet of note paper with "Save file loaded successfully." typed in tiny print. And I wonder: What file is being saved in this never before played game? Don't we usually play something before we have files to save? Don't really get that.

The games are: Word Link, Word Mine, Hyper Text, Word Run, Word Safe, Word Search. Word Brain is a combination of all the games played in sequence. Only Hyper Text and Word Safe seemed like novel (original) games to me.

Next you tap on the check mark (Margot calls it a "tick". This is a British game. ) On the next screens you see Margot again, get some music, and Margot greeting you with "Welcome to Margot's Word Game". Then the touch screen changes to the words "Word Brain" bracketed by left and right arrows, and at the bottom of the screen an "X" in a red circle (the X is referred to as a cross) and the check or tick in a green circle. Music continues. You can scroll left or right to select a game. They don't just give you a list of games and let you select. You have to scroll through the entire list to find the one you want. The names are all written in white letters on dark yellow tiles, one letter per tile. No variation in color. No pictures, other than Margot's head always on the left screen. The entire game is visually very dull with just these plain tiles of never varying colors. Well, ok, in some games there are some orange tiles for the letters you select.

After selecting a game you get a touch screen that tells you: "Touch the tick to play the game. Touch the cross to see a demo.” Margot also speaks this information. As she speaks her words are scrolled across the bottom of the left screen, in tiny, tiny letters, although there is plenty of unused space. The words you see are not synchronized with her speech. After playing a game you can get back to the game selection page by touching the start button.

The Games

Game: Word Link -Not an original game
The left screen changes to the note paper with the tiny scroll bar on which you can read Margot's instructions as she reads them aloud to you. Again the screen words and the spoken words are out of sync. This is a familiar game where you have columns of letters and you make words of three to six letters by touching adjacent letters in sequence. If you leave the sound on as you play, you get to hear "tick, tick, tick, tick, tick" until your 90 seconds are up. Then you get the results of your performance.

Game: Word Mine --Not an original game
Demo: Six jumbled letters appear at the top of the touch screen. You make as many three to six letter words as you can using the six letters-again in 90 seconds.

Game: Hyper Txt - I've not seen a game like this before
In this game you "text message" touching the numbers in a phone keypad layout to type the words shown on the left screen. You have 90 seconds, but the game ends instantly if you make a mistake. And you cannot really text as fast as you want because after you tap the key you want (as many times as needed to get the correct letter) you have to wait for the next space at the top to be highlighted. If you get a new high score you get a keyboard layout on which to type your name in all capital letters.

Game: Word Run - works like creating a crossword puzzle, no clues required, just words.
You have a 6X6 grid and a keyboard. First Margot types a word, then you type a word that intersects her word at one letter. Then she adds a word. This process continues until you or Margot cannot add a word. Whoever that is, is the loser.

Game: Word Safe - novel.
Letters arranged in concentric circles. One letter in the center, 8 letters in the next circle and 16 letters in the outer circle. Select adjacent letters to form words that Margot has in her safe.

Game: Word Search - with a twist
Margot gives you three words and about 3 or 4 seconds to memorize them. Then you get the letter grid. You identify the words by touching the beginning and ending letters of each word. Same ‘ole 90 seconds of course. This is pretty easy, provided you can just remember the words you need to find.

Game: Word Brain
This is a sequence of all six games. Margot gives you the scores after each game.

Only words that are included in Margot's personal dictionary work in these games. And she doesn't seem to have a very complete vocabulary. After playing Word Link and Word Mine for about three or four minutes I discovered that she doesn't know: wad, ray, or deal. I don't really consider them to be very unusual words. On the other hand many of the words Margot uses seem rather unusual to me, for example: dachas, kipped, kummel, dowses, eerier, plough, inarch, voiles, xenias. Some of this is due to the use of British terminology. But at any rate, when you have only 90 seconds to play having perfectly normal words rejected is a little annoying.

Graphics/Sound
Overall there is very little that is new on this game. It is visually very dull. Margot's head is about the most you will see in the way of a picture. Mostly it is just letters on tiles with not even color variations. Margot does read the directions to you out loud, in case you cannot read. (In which case can you really play word games?) Some games could really use this feature. I don't think this is one of them. Margot's voice and the “tick, tick” as your time runs out are the most interesting things about the sound. There is some run of the mill music to accompany the games.

There are no options to do much of anything else, or any quick ways to get around. When you finish a game that lasts all of 90 seconds, you have to fiddle around getting through the scoring pages, etc to get to the next game. If you want to play rather than admire a list of scores this is very boring.

Final Recommendation:
This game is not fun or interesting. Don't buy it. Don't rent it. If you receive it as a gift, return it and get something better.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 10/15/08

Game Release: Margot's Word Brain (US, 09/30/08)