Review #037 – Word Play

Word Play essentially asks the question: “what if we made a run-based Balatro-like but replaced Poker with Scrabble?”. I mean, really—it was only a matter of time before we’d start seeing a ton of knockoffs after Balatro’s surprising success. But if we keep getting strong, clever imitations like Word Play, then keep ‘em coming.

Every run has 12 rounds, and every round you’re given a handful of letter tiles. The goal is to try and make the highest scoring words—Scrabble-style—to complete the round. Modifiers and gifts can change up your strategies too, like say, making the fourth letter of every word worth +3 points, or multiplying the word’s score if it starts with an “F”. 

Mark Brown’s previous game, Mind Over Magnet, is a decent little puzzler, but he has definitely stepped up his game here (pun intended?). It really makes you think, and it’s easy to spend hours trying to maximize points on every word. And sure, it’s a tad knockoff-ish, but it doesn’t feel like a lazy cash-grab.