Game Reviews

TextTwist 2

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TextTwist 2
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| TextTwist 2

Do not underestimate the power of a good word game. For well over a decade, my folks purchased the same paper, morning after morning, despite the fact that barely a word of its print was ever read. Why, you might wonder? Because it happened to have a particular word puzzle on the back page that my mother had a penchant for.

TextTwist 2 is startlingly similar to said paper's puzzle, the idea being to make as many words out of a set group of letters as possible, albeit without the insulation of articles on Princess Diana and secret taxes on the middle classes.

TextTwist bingo!

The premise is a straightforward one. You're asked to comprise words out of a varying number of letters presented at the bottom of the screen, with slots to fill in at the top. Each letter set can be pulled out to form any number of words, the lowest being three-letter, the top 'bingo' word using all of them. It's finding this bingo word that's your main aim and you're given two minutes per round in which to do it.

The main mode comes with no clues or tips whatsoever, the idea being to fill in the smaller words to wrack up the points before going for the bingo word. You can skip twice, resetting the clock as you do so. It's the kind of puzzle that takes just a second or two to comprehend but isn't necessarily a breeze to play.

The additional modes do little to widen its appeal. An untimed alternative, a Lightning mode that's essentially a series of bingo challenges, a Letter Mania option where filling in a set number of blocks with words of your choosing is the goal, and a countdown-style Word of the Day challenge, which can only be tackled once, all essentially putting a slightly different spin on the exact same gameplay. Variety is not the game's strong point.

Born in the USA

Except when it comes to the words themselves, that is. Though all such modes will seem too similar for some, that's not really the biggest problem. More prominent on the horizon is the game's dictionary, which tests the Anglo-American relationship to its limits.

That's because TextTwist 2 comes with an American bent, meaning all the words come with an American-English spelling. That's not a problem for those who live on one side of the Atlantic, of course, and even for the Brits amongst us, it's no big problem to drop a 'u' here and there.

What's more testing is the haphazard spin this puts on play. It's not uncommon for English words to be completely left out ('bung' the first casualty I encountered), while TextTwist 2 appears to be littered with words that are yet to make it across the ocean.

This essentially means that, when all your own guesses are exhausted, the best tactic is to simply enter letters at random, discovering new words as you go. A far from disastrous situation, of course, but not exactly ideal, either.

Still, TextTwist 2 remains something of a worthy brain teaser for those who consider the Oxford Dictionary their own personal bible. Though not without its faults, what's on offer here is a substitute for those paper-bound puzzles, a quick minute fix for all those vocabulary junkies out there.

TextTwist 2

Like a typical paper puzzle, the wordplay is the perfect company for your morning cup of coffee, although dictionary issues and a lack of variety taint the experience
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Keith Andrew
Keith Andrew
With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font. He's also Pocket Gamer's resident football gaming expert and, thanks to his work on PG.biz, monitors the market share of all mobile OSes on a daily basis.