Taking Scrabble to a new dimension, UpWords is a fresh and entertaining electronic word game. Like Scrabble, it involves playing words on a game board, but players are able to place their tiles on top of other tiles in order to create new words. "Strive" becomes "strife" or even "knife" in this special 3-dimensional gameplay. The more tiles used on a turn, the more points are accumulated.
In UpWords Classic, play against the AI referred to as 'Maven' (against the computer, with 10 difficulty levels), solo in Solitaire mode, against other human players on the same computer, or in a networked game.
UpWords Challenge version is a 2-player game only that can be played against the computer or against a human player. Game play is similar to the classic version, except the object of the game is different, and players are given the exact same letter mix. Each player has his/her own set of tiles, either black or white, and each attempts to have the most of his/her colored tiles on the board at the end of the game.
Different options are available to customize the experience -- a choice of backgrounds, music, etc. There is a Word Lister feature that essentially gives cheats -- it will show up to 10 possible words that the user can play with the current rack of tiles, and players simply scroll through these possiblities and select the one they want. The Define feature allows users to see definitions of words in the UpWords dictionary, and can be used if a player is uncertain of a word and fears their opponent will challenge.
UpWords is surprisingly fun, and children ages 8 and up won't notice they are playing a game that is rather educational -- kids can improve their spelling, vocabulary, as well as logical thinking and strategy skills.
Playing against the game's artificial intelligence at high levels of difficulty is a lesson in humility. Scrabble fans will enjoy this new game that essentially is their favorite game with an interesting twist and a more straightforward scoring system.
