Every Word for Kindle

Posted on December 28, 2010 by kaizenboy

Every Word is the second free kindle game released by Amazon. It’s well reviewed with a 4 star rating on 91 reviews.

The premise of the game is that you get a set of letters, and have to make all possible words using those letters. The more words you make the higher your score.

In addition, you have to make at least one word which uses ALL the letters available to progress to the next round.

Why is Every Word free?

Amazon made the game itself to give Kindle owners a gentle introduction to the Kindle App Store. That’s probably why it’s free.

Is Every Word better than Shuffled Row?

Shuffled Row is the other word game released by Amazon for free. In my opinion, Shuffled Row is better. However, Every Word tends to see more downloads, and it’s a somewhat easier game to play.

With Shuffled Row you’re constantly on edge. Every Word has a no-timer mode, which means that you can play it at your own pace.

Can I skip a level in Every Word?

Unfortunately, you can’t. You must finish a particular level to get to the next level.

Can I restart a level in Every Word?

Again, you can’t. You have to get each level right the first time. You can start from Level 1 as many times as you like. However, if you get stuck on Level 5, you can’t restart from Level 5 – You have to go back to Level 1.

This ‘re-start from Level 1’ nonsense is what got me to stop playing Every Word. It’s rather annoying to have to re-do all the levels.

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Shuffled Row for Kindle

Posted on December 28, 2010 by kaizenboy

Shuffled Row is a free kindle game. It’s a lot of fun. You get a bunch of letters and, within a limited period of time, have to form words with the letters. New letters keep appearing, and existing letters keep disappearing, after regular intervals of time.

People seem to agree that the game is fun, as it has a 4 star rating on 89 reviews.

Why is Shuffled Row free?

Shuffled Row is free as it’s built by the internal team at Amazon. Amazon has bought a few game companies in the last 2 to 4 years, and one or more of them might be working on making Kindle games like Shuffled Row.

Is Shuffled Row addictive?

Yes, Shuffled Row is very addictive.

Firstly, there’s limited time so your brain is constantly on edge. That’s a feeling which can be quite addictive.

Secondly, you’re told your high score, and your highest word score, and you feel a desire to beat that score.

Thirdly, it’s random – so you never know what letters you’re going to get.

Is Shuffled Row good for taking a quick break?

Yes and No.

Yes, since an individual game takes just 10 to 15 minutes. No, since it’s addictive, and you’ll want to play just one more game to see if you can beat your score. Next thing you know – you’ve been playing Shuffled Row for an hour.

Filed under: Free Kindle Games | Tagged: , | 2 Comments »

Kindle Crosswords App – NY Times Kindle Crosswords App

Posted on December 22, 2010 by kaizenboy

If you’ve been waiting for a Kindle Crosswords App, you’re in for a treat – There are now 4 Kindle Crosswords Apps available from NY Times.

The way NY Times has released these is – It has split them into Easy and Challenging, and into a set of 30 and a set of 90.

  1. NY Times Kindle Crosswords App (Easy) – 30 puzzles for $1.99.
  2. NY Times Kindle Crosswords App (Easy ) – 90 puzzles for $4.99.
  3. NY Times Kindle Crosswords App (Hard) – 30 puzzles for $1.99.
  4. NY Times Kindle Crosswords App (Hard) – 90 puzzles for $4.99.

So you can choose which difficulty level you like, and how many crosswords you’d like.

Kindle Crosswords App from NY Times – Quick Thoughts

  1. The Kindle’s screen size doesn’t seem enough for a crosswords app. On the bright side, the letters are very clear.
  2. The clues are in a small font. Do take a look at the screenshots before buying. Not sure if there’s an option to see a particular clue in large-size font.
  3. Only 1 of the 4 apps has reviews so far – a solitary 4 star review. It describes the NY Times Kindle Crosswords App as – pretty good, not perfect but playable.
  4. This is a much-awaited app. It’s a bit disappointing to see NY Times split it into 4 apps, and make things complicated.
  5. If you want 120 puzzles, in a particular difficulty level, you have to buy 2 apps for a combined total of $7. That’s a bit steep.

Since I’m neither an expert at Crosswords, nor familiar with these 4 apps, here are some details from the review -

The good:
–Clues are right where you can see them, both across and down.
–Everything is very readable.
–Answer checking is available.
–Fully interactive.

The not-so-good:
–The game doesn’t know where the next answer should be placed, so you have to scroll around a bit to get to a clue on the next line.
–It’s slow. There is significant lag time between typing and letters appearing, but you can type ahead.

Around 4 stars, is what my opinion would be too – for the $1.99 titles. The $4.99 titles seem overly expensive.

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Kindle Scrabble App Review

Posted on September 24, 2010 by kaizenboy

Amazon has just released a Kindle Scrabble App.

Let’s look at the details –

  • Type: Kindle Word Game.
  • Price: $4.99.
  • Availability: US only. Kindle 2, Kindle 3, Kindle DX, Kindle WiFi. Not on Kindle 1.
  • Publisher: Electronic Arts.
  • Developer: No Credits.
  • Release Date: September 23rd, 2010.
  • Highest Position: Sales Rank not listed.

Those are the basic details.

Kindle Scrabble App – Thoughts

  1. It’s $4.99 which is pretty expensive.
  2. It’s quite good. Played with it and it has lots of modes and lots of options.
  3. It takes a bit of time to load.
  4. The letters are a bit small when playing. Hopefully they add on a larger font size later.
  5. It’s quite fun.
  6. The movement is fast.
  7. It’s a bit confusing – couldn’t figure out how to get a normal game started as there are so many options. Thankfully, they have a Quick Play mode.

Overall, a very good game though the price needs to come down to $2 or $3.

Kindle Scrabble App – Ratings

Well, let’s see –

  1. Game play – Good. 4.5 on 5. 
  2. Replayability – Very Good. 5 on 5.
  3. Visuals – So so. 3.5 on 5. There’s just too much on the screen.
  4. Speed – 3 on 5. Long loading times. 
  5. Value for Money – Low. 3.5 on 5. 
  6. Value for Time – High. 4.5 on 5. 
  7. Reading Angle – 3 on 5. Another word game.

Overall, it averages a 3.86 on 5 which would be around 4 stars out of 5 and an A- grade.

Kindle Scrabble App – Conclusion

Scrabble is a very good app to start off with and though the high price and overabundance of word games are minor impediments the game shines overall.

You can get Scrabble at Amazon. Recommended if the price isn’t an issue.

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Kindle Word Games

Posted on August 4, 2010 by kaizenboy

Amazon added two free Kindle Word Games i.e.

These are good solid games and it makes you wonder what Kindle Word Games we’ll see.

  1. Some version of Scrabble is a certainty. EA has the rights for Scrabble, to the best of my knowledge, and it’s probably working on some word games for Kindle.
  2. Hangman. Someone’s probably going to release a free version of this.
  3. Perhaps even a game where you have to type words as they fall down a screen.
  4. Crosswords will be very popular.
  5. A game where you find words in a grid of alphabets.

There are actually quite a few Kindle word games possible and if the paid ones that are released see success we’ll see lots and lots of developers jump into making word games – they are easy to make and don’t require much time or infrastructure to maintain.

Our focus is not on Kindle word games or Kindle word puzzles but if we did work on them it would be fun to make something like words for friends – to introduce the social aspect.

That would, however, require servers and a lot of maintenance and might not be profitable.

Filed under: Kindle Games | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

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