Word Monster Review

Word Monster is a mix between Scramble with Friends or Boggle, a word search, and a trivia game. While I feel similarities between my new favorite word game, Scramble with Friends, my overall experience with Word Monster was boring and short-lived.

Similar to Scramble and Boggle, the goal of Word Monster is to chain words together in a grid. The board starts out Boggle-sized (four-by-four), but then larger puzzles are introduced later. The player isn’t looking for just any word though. The game gives clues on the left. The clues are words or phrases with the part in the puzzle blanked out. For example, (blank) collar might mean the word “dog” is in the puzzle.

In the smaller puzzles, finding the answers is no problem. But when the game steps up to five-by-five and six-by-six, the player may need to use the clue feature. If one of the clues is tapped, the first letter of the answer shows up in green on the game board. I didn’t find many of the puzzles particularly challenging. But with the last 10-15 puzzles, I’ll admit I used the clue for every answer. I was quite bored with the game but wanted to unlock the last puzzle in the free pack (the “monster” six-by-six). I believe the source of my boredom was that there was no challenge to the game. The addition of a timer to solve each puzzle could make the game a bit more fun.

Notice that I said the “free pack.” The game only comes with 41 puzzles: 20 four-by-fours, 20 five-by-fives, and one ‘monster’ six-by-six. To play more puzzles, more packs need to be purchases in-app for $0.99 a piece. Some of those packs include larger seven-by-seven puzzles. While I appreciate that Word Monster is a free app and gives players a free pack to start with, I burned through the 41 puzzles in an incredibly short time. As a “free” game, the pack the game starts with is almost a tease.

Word Monster might be a decent for word game fans that own dozens of word games, but I want a little more out of the game.

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