Wordlings is a very ‘distracting’ word game.
Wordlings, featured in the App Store’s “New Games We Love” section, is a multi-faceted word game. Though Beyoncé (Official) gave it a one-star review, saying, “It’s just too slow and the words are too easy,” I found that Wordlings is engaging and possibly even, as other reviewers have called it, addicting. I completely drained my phone’s battery testing it. Of course, I can completely see where Queen Bey is coming from. If you’re considering downloading Wordlings, you should know that it takes a little upfront grinding to get to the good stuff. I mean that not all the content is given to you all at once; you have to play a few rounds of the admittedly very dull basic mode in order to earn rewards, which unlock the better content.
The first mode of play is common untimed Climber, in which you are given a ladder of letters. Each row is a scrambled word. The first level (Common) starts off with three or four-letter words, so it’s easy and repetitive. When you finish a game, you earn orbs, which you use to power up your Wordlings, which are little buffs you use to get extra points (e.g., +500 points for words starting with Q, +150% for all consonants, etc.). Another option for getting orbs is to buy or watch video ads. Doing these things can also get you tickets, which you can use in games for hints.
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As you play, you also unlock rewards such as different modes of play, difficulty levels, and daily puzzles. These are all worth the first few boring games, I promise. I’m a little obsessed with the Twist mode (untimed and at the hardest difficulty), in which you are given seven letters and are challenged with making as many words as you can using them. It gives you a preset number in each length category that you have to fill to finish the game, but you can get additional points by making extra words if they’re there.
One of the best parts about Wordlings is the competitive aspect. You can play with buddies, challenge others, and check where you rank among other players (I’m currently #123 on Twist). Being able to see that someone out there has beaten your highest score by half a million really makes you get creative with your words, or it does me, anyway.
Now for the cons. Again, it takes a bit of boring play upfront to get to the good stuff. If you skip a word in Climber, you can’t come back to it later (also, if you’re stumped, it won’t tell you what the answer is, which I find frustrating because I NEED TO KNOW).
Overall, I’m going to keep playing Wordlings for a while. There’s quite a bit to fiddle around with to get the best scores, and there’s a puzzle
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or two for every type of play. If you like timed or untimed games, finding words or making words, Wordlings has something you’ll find distracting.
DOWNLOAD – FREE – iOS
For more information, visit wordlingsgame.com.
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