Word Fu Review
It seems that ngmoco is working hard to be one of the surest things in the App Store. I’ve enjoyed many of their games and even when the game isn’t “great” I can still be assured that the game will be full of polish and I’ll get more than my money out of it.
But I have to say that I think that they’ve out done themselves with WordFu. Some how they’ve taken a simple word game and turned it into a heart pumping action movie. A game that’s as fun to play as it is to watch… and even more fun to listen to!
Stripped done to the bone, WordFu is a “Boggle/Test Twist” type game where you are presented with random letters and you have to see how many words you can create from the letters. You’re given a time limit and it’s up to you to get the best score you can.
But it’s what you’re stripping away that makes WordFu one of the best word games you’re likely to find on the App Store.
I keep trying to write this and save the sound effects for last, but I just cant. Every movement of the device, every touch of the screen, and seemingly every time you think, you will hear an excellent “kung fu” style sound effect to go with it. After close to 50 games I’m still smiling as I play or even when I’m watching someone else play. The sounds of this game do the best job I’ve ever seen… uh, heard, at driving a theme for a game. Brilliant!
But great sounds are nothing without game play, so let’s look at that. You start by giving the device a shake to get your starting letters. Don’t like one? No problem, give that die a flick and get a new roll. Don’t like any letters? Fine, just shake the device and get a new set. You can do all of this as many times as you’d like until the timer tells you it’s “go time”.
From there you just spell words by touching the dice one at a time. The game allows you to use a letter more than once in the normal game and that’s a nice way to build up the really big words. You can switch to “Shaolin” style and then you can only use each letter once in a word. Both are fun.
What would a game with a Kung Fu theme be without being able to challenge a foe? Nothing… that’s what. WordFu takes care of this by allowing you to humble your opponent over real time multiplayer WiFi matches. The game works very smoothly in this mode and ads a lot of craziness to the sound effects.
During the game you’ll sometimes open up specialty dice that will give you a chance to freeze time, change any die you want, and even double your score on a word. That last one really comes into strategy play. I would often see a long word, but hold off spelling it so I could wait for the double die (actually “fire”) to get as many points as possible.
I’m a big fan of unlocking achievements in games and was glad to see that WordFu didn’t let me down. These achievements come in the form of “belts” that you can earn. It’s going to be a while until I get my black belt… but it’s coming!
The only real problem I found with the game is that occasionally I would touch a letter and then notice that it didn’t show. It might have been just my rush to spell words, but I found it happening more than I thought it should. I’m hoping for the control issue to be addressed in updates. And, of course, there’s my love for a global scoreboard, which this game is lacking. But both of those items are very small things and really just me trying to give a “full” review.
This is a very solid game and I’ve been having a blast playing it. Right now it’s on sale for $1 and I would be hard pressed to think of a better way to spend that dollar if you’re a fan of word games. In fact, this is a great time for word game fans. Last week I reviewed Moxie and loved it the mix of strategy and relaxing play. WordFu is almost the exact opposite. Everything is fast and frantic. Both are wonderful games and I am thrilled with both. Word game fans rejoice!
The Good
Sound Effects are as fun as the game Adrenaline pumping word game Achievements = earning belts Versus over WiFi
The Bad
Occasional touch problems Anything else is nit-picky
Related posts:
- Word Solitaire Review
- Moxie 2 iPhone Review: Pick Up and Play Word Game Goodness
- Tripletters: Give the App Store’s Newest Word App a Spin!
Category: Games
Congrats to Catango the winner of the app!
looks like ngmoco has done it again!
Heh. It’s like a cross between Boggle and MotionX Poker. The more I watch the video…the more I think I love it.
It is hard to miss those word tiles especially when they are not moving…hehe
yeah that app is cool
nice graphics
saw some vids and its very difficult….
but I would accept the challenge….
Thanks for this review. The kungfu fighting sounds seems too exaggerated that I laugh over the video.
thanks for this great review! It doesnt really have any cons according to Glenn and it has a great price! If i dont win, ill probably pick it up.
wow, another point for ngmoco!
looks fun sounds fun what else it there
looks like a fun puzzle game!
I could see the sound effects being fun for a while but I wonder if I wouldn’t get tired of hearing them. If there isn’t an option to turn them down then I”ll be using the mute switch a lot. But I used to LOVE Boggle and I’ve been neglecting the word game choices in the App Store so this sounds like something I’ll want to check out.
I’m a huge fan of NGMOCO. They make great games. And this is just another one for them. I love the kung-fu theme that makes an ordinarry word game into a somewhat action-y game.
ngmoco is always quality…although for some reason i just couldnt get into dropship. Anyways, looks really good.
Ngmoco impresses again! Words+action=fun?
Lots of belts seem interesting, and I love the fast-paced side of it, Lots of multiplayer…. Looks and sounds pretty cooL!
Sounds awesome…
Did not think that a word game could be turned action style
The devs never fail to amaze me
Looks like a really cool new twist on word games.
yay ngmoco! This game looks pretty awesome for just 99 cents. I think ill pick it up if i dont win.
ngmoco is one of my favorite developers and all of their games work very smoothly and are very fun (topple, mazefinger, ROLANDO!!!)
this game looks really fun and well made, and i heard its rly difficult.
definitely a great buy at only 99 cents.
Looks the the minds are Ngmoco are at work again! Their apps are hit and miss but still pretty good.
i love word games, especially of the frantic variety! It also seems like a great deal at $.99
i love ngmoco:) im gonna have to check this out.
Looks like a really great, original game. Watching the video I can see alot of style and flare to this game. Looks like it will be worth the cost for a few weeks!
cool. anything by ngmoco must be good. a strange twist on a word game.
This game looks nice. It has a nice twist on word games and i like the style they added with the “fu” theme.
cool ng-moco
This looks like a very good word game. ngmoco has a reputation of publishing very good, polished apps. It seems like a good deal for $1.
ngmoco has made pretty much only quality apps. Plus this is a word game, one of my favorite genres. The quality and genre selection have really drawn me to get this, maybe soon.
this game seems rather interesting. and the fact that ngmoco made it is great! for 1 dollar it seems like a no-brainer to me!
First word game I’ve actually been interested in
Another great game by ngmoco
For some reason it makes me think of ragdoll kung-fu coming out for the ps3
This is a very interesting word game to say the least. I do worry that the sounds would become annoying and silly after a while. Probably ok since my phone is on vibrate 90% of the time.
I still don’t get the desire for global leader boards on most games. Some games sure, but stuff like this? They are usually just led by some bloke who figured out how to glitch the system and get 10 million points at once.
I love this game! I got it the first day it came out; it remains my favorite of all the word games I’ve tried.
The only downside is that after a while, your hands start to cramp from clutching your iPod in a death grip.
But it really is a great game, and a frantic one. Not so great for thirty-second spurts, but an excellent one for long periods of boredom. I was so excited when I first broke 10k points.
How’s this for a wish, though? Global challenges. The Wifi challenges would be great if I knew any other people with the game, but as it is, I’d love to go head-to-head with someone.
Ooooh a frantic word game! I’m wondering though is this the best game to spend my last dollar? Since I won’t be getting another giftcard until April I’m trying to save it for something good.
Man… I hate that kind of pressure! I really like the game (as my review states)… but your “last dollar”. I’m afraid that depends whether or not you like word games a lot! I’d say it’s one of my most “fun” games at the moment and I did buy this game before doing the review. Well worth the dollar… I just don’t know about the “last dollar”.
Seems like a well polished game for short bursts
my friend has got this game .. i already played it on his device ..
you have to think hard .. graphics rock .. gameplay is really fun ..
but its hard to think fast .. there are many different ways to build words .. beacuse you can doubble tab letters .. if you wanna make a word with for example (2 t)
ngmoco is really good in creating games .. its best word game i think but maybe a little difficult
After reading the review, I went to the App Store to just see how many Word, Spelling, Boggle type games there were out there. Like any popular genre, there were tons. For me personally, for a game to stand out amongst the rest it really needs to bring something different to the table. Word Fu initially seems to do just that. I think that the Wi-Fi probably excites me the most. It is too early to tell from video footage of this game if the added flare will last, but we shall see.
Thanks glenn for another great review!
Actually a “Bob” review… but I don’t want to be nit-picky…
Haha my bad, I just saw that it was posted by Glenn.
Therefore, thank you Bob for a great review!
I may have to buy this if I don’t win it assuming it would still be on sale and I’m not even that into word games but this looks very good.
Somehow this game reminds me MotionX Poker Quest with those dices. I’d like to see some in-game video with the actual gameplay. The above one is too hectic for me…
The video is very in-game except you do not see a real finger..
Yeah… I know it seems odd, but the video really is in game play. You give the game a shake to submit a word and the video is just trying to give you a sense of that. The video is frantic, because the game is frantic.