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Monday, 23 January 2012 23:33

Written by Max Parker (The Game Guy)

I’d like to see the total number of professional working hours that have been lost due to Zynga’s “Words with Friends,” and the lesser known-but still popular-hanging with friends.  Zynga’s mobile addictions are more than the average casual game.  They provide a new social connection between friends and family.  I’m even in the middle of “Words with Friends” games with people I’m loosely acquainted with.  These games appeal to such a broad audience and they’re perfect for picking up whether you have a couple minutes of free time, or you’re buried in work.

A few weeks ago, Zynga added a new time-sink to their growing lineup by the name of “Scramble with Friends.”  Like “Words with Friends” is similar (or exactly the same) to the board game “Scrabble,” “Scramble with Friends” is Zynga’s vision of “Boggle.”  The objective is simple: score more points than your opponent by finding words in a 4x4 grid of random letters.  Each letter has a point value and the less common the letter, the higher its value.

Players play one-on-one matches with three, two-minute rounds.  The points are totaled at the end of the three rounds and the highest point value wins.  It’s not a best-of-three battle.  After the first round, the board changes and letters are randomly given letter and word multipliers.

Elapsed time earns coins, which can be spent on power-ups.  The power-ups freeze the clock, reveal a word that hasn’t been found, or rearrange the board.

As soon as the player elects to begin the round, the two-minute clock begins to tick.  When interrupted by a call, or message, or someone tries to talk to you in real life, you can pause the round and pick up where you left off later.

Herein lies the biggest problem with “Scramble:” the two-minute timer. The beauty of “Words” and “Hanging with Friends” is their lack of any kind of timer.  People can pick up the game, give the turn some thought, and make a play as his or her leisure.  These games can easily be scheduled around your busy life.

“Scramble’s” rigidity works against it.  Sure, the round can be paused, but there’s a rhythm or “zone” to get into within that two minutes.  If you hear your boss rounding the corner of the cubicle, that will surely throw you off your game.  You might as well knock thirty seconds off that clock while you rebuild your composure once your boss returns to whatever he or she does all day.

The “time” element of “Scramble” doesn’t ruin the game by any means. It still contains the addictive nature of the rest of the Zynga catalogue, and is the perfect fix if you’re sick of “Words.” The game is sold under the same business model as the rest of the Zynga library.  There is a free version that includes nonintrusive ads, and a 99 cent version that is ad-free.  The game is available for both the iOS and Android platforms.

8.5 out of 10

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