Turns out words are worth a thousand games

It hardly seems like anytime has past since we were shooting the breeze about last week's homebrew releases. But here we are again, a little later than usual, ready to take a meander through the weird and wonderful world of 'bru' software.

I'm still holding out, managing to abstain from commercial games on my DS and PSP. So far, so good: I have been kept well stoked with the fruits of the homebrew larder.

This week, however, I caught sight of a friend playing Brain Training and now I'm itching for a little self improvement.

As luck would have it, I was browsing a list of updated homebrew for the DS and what should pop up but a great vocab stretcher going by the name of Word Wrap (pictured). This game is a little like Boggle: you are presented with a string of letters, out of which you need to construct different length words.

Not only does it sport a great handmade aesthetic but provides a variety of different game modes, too. You can try and spot the most words in a minute, or go for the longest word possible. If that's not enough, you can chain words together to generate massive bonuses. I soon found myself digging deep trying to pull out that final word! Educational homebrew – who'd have thought it?

I have to admit that if my poor DS's batteries hadn't died, I'd happily have played Word Wrap all week. However, once it did need recharging I was prompted to pick up the PSP and discover another happy distraction – this one more of a 'misspent youth' kind of pursuit. PSPool, as its name suggests, delivers a top-down rendition of pool straight to your PSP.

The PSP's super bright screen is not only ideal for rendering those multicoloured balls, but is also an perfect aspect for a pool table. Something of a match made in hustler heaven, as I happily found out. Although this is one for older firmware (with a folder to be copied to GAME for 1.0 and 1.5 versions) I'm sure it will get a release on 3.XX before too long.

Fun as it was, after a bit of pool on the PSP I noticed the DS had charged, so I quickly shuffled back for some more Word Wrap action.

Which is where we'll leave another week consigned to playtimes past, and not a commercial title in sight. Join us again next week to see what other wonders we can pull from the homebrew community. Until then, keep working on those word high scores.