Game Reviews

Beejumbled

Star onStar onStar onStar halfStar off
|
| Beejumbled
Get
Beejumbled
|
| Beejumbled

Word games know more words than you do. Or, to put it another more accurate way, word games have faster access to more words than you do. The key to making an entertaining letter puzzler is to try and hide that fact.

If, even for a second, it feels like you're being beaten into submission by a dictionary, then the spell of the game breaks and you're left feeling cheated. And unfortunately, while Beejumbled is wonderful in other areas, here it really falls down.

A bee see

As you might guess from the name, the game casts you as a word-obsessed insect. There are a few to choose from, although most of them are locked at the start of the game. As you earn more honey and hives you'll be able to choose a range of different bees.

Each of them has its own special skill or boost that's going to come in handy when you hit the board. That board is made up of a series of hexagonal pieces, each with a letter on it. You need to draw a line through those letters to make words.

There are two modes in single-player. Time Trial, which tasks you with scoring as many points as you can before the clock runs down, and Challenge, which sees you facing off against other bees to be the first to score a set number of points.

Beat the bee and you can unlock it to play as in single-player or multiplayer games. In each game you have to equip at least one perk. These give you a variety of bonuses, from scoring more points for getting certain words to extending the timer each time you score a point.

But the bees you're fighting against know a lot of obscure words. So much so that there were times I had to Google things to make sure the game wasn't just making things up. I understand that games need to be challenging, but it all feels like playing Words With Friends against someone you know is sitting there with an anagram-solving program open.

Bees, bees, beeeeees

The multiplayer offers some blessed relief, though, and it's here that Beejumbled really gets a chance to shine. Whether you're playing against friends or in one of the ranking tournaments there's an extra layer of tension, and an extra layer of fun, that's sorely lacking in the single-player sections.

If you're looking for a word game to play on your own then Beejumbled is probably worth giving a miss. If you're looking for something to play online or with your friends then it's definitely worth your time.

Beejumbled

It might not have a solid single-player campaign, but Beejumbled's excellent multiplayer goes some way to fix that
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.