WordCrafter

Scrabble is quite categorically a game for indoors.

As tempting as it might be to take it out and about on a hot summer's day, the whole thing is likely to end in tears as soon as you encounter a strong gust of wind or an enthusiastic stray dog.

On almost every level, WordCrafter delivers a spruced-up Scrabble experience, all played out on a series of grassy banks. WordCrafter could, therefore, be described as 'Scrabble Plus'.

The idea is to link words in chains to reach a goalpost on the other side of the stage. Doing so requires your making use of the seven letters at your disposal during each turn, and placing them on grid squares to form words you then link back up with in subsequent moves.

This means that, while snaking your way around the board, every single word you form has to be connected to another, with your final choice laid out across the level's 'end tile'.

Aside from simply making it to the other side of the stage, there are bonuses to aim for. Some squares, for instance, represent score multipliers.

So, in typical Scrabble style, letters placed on these spaces have their individual scores multiplied by the factor in question.

What's more, should your single phrase span more than one multiplier, all of the multipliers are added together and multiplied by the word's total score.

There are also stars to pick up – typically placed off the beaten track – that unlock new worlds and boost your score.

However, not all is rosy in the WordCrafter garden. Fairly often, I was left stumped by the letters available (just one hint available per round, accessed by hitting the '*' key), only to find that placing a seemingly random bunch of letters down formed a word I'd never even heard of.

Conversely, the game also seems to have locked out words it deems inappropriate: 'nude', for instance, is out of bounds.

Despite these (admittedly slight) issues with the game's PG rating and on-board dictionary, WordCrafter is a solid enough spin on the Scrabble model. And thanks to its single-player setup, it's also the perfect alternative for lone Scrabble souls like me.