Kindle Apps Blog

Word Quest is basically a huge set of Word Search puzzles.  I really enjoyed playing this game because it does a good job in guiding you through the game, has awesome graphics, and includes customizations.  Out of all of the word and number puzzle games, word searches are my favorite.

When you first start Word Quest, you will get a prompt that will ask if you want to review the instructions.  I think that is is a good idea to review them because they have tips and suggestions that you might not know about by just playing the game.

Basically, there are 50 puzzles ranging in difficulty levels.  Each of the puzzles have themes.  Example:  Spring/Summer.  The word list is huge, so if you restart the same puzzle, you’ll get a different set of words, or the same words in different locations.  In typical word search fashion, the words are hidden vertically, horizontally, and diagonally.  Some are backwards.

Select the words with the Kindle’s 5-way toggle button.  Select the beginning and end letter and it will highlight the whole word.  You can customize how you mark each word.  Some might prefer not marking the word at all on the grid, but instead have it marked off on the list.

Word Quest includes font size adjustments.  This is a feature that I wish all Kindle games had.  Some are so small I have to squint to read the letters.  You can also change the font style.  I really like how there are so many controls that are in the hands of the user.

There are a ton of word game puzzles on the Kindle.  You can also try Word Search.  It also is a good game.  But, Word Quest is my favorite out of all of the word games.  Not too shabby deal for just $2!

There needs to be more reviews.  Word Quest is over two months old, so I hope more people will give it a try and share their experience.

Ed Pegg

“I’ve liked several programs by Compulab (Calendar, Peg Solitaire), so i thought I’d check out this one.

It’s a fairly standard word search puzzle. In each, use the 5-way locator to pick the first and last letter of a word. That word is then circled, and crossed off the list.

There are 10 each of Casual (12×12), Apprentice (13×13), Pro (14×14), Expert (15×15), and Masters (16×16) level, for 50 puzzles in all.”

Everyone knows how to play Hangman. I still grab a piece of paper and pencil every once in awhile when I’m bored and play the game. Now that Hangman is available on my Kindle, I can help out the environment by not wasting paper and have it with me wherever I go.

Hangman for the Kindle surprised me with the fairly elaborate graphics. There’s a medieval style man that looks like a character from a Shakespeare play, and there’s the traditional stick figure.  Everything is really clear and crisp. The letters are pretty big, and easy to see.

It was surprisingly difficult even in the beginner levels. The hints were pretty broad. Watch out, the body parts sure do add up quickly. The general rule is to run through the vowels first. If you can use deductive reasoning to figure out the word, then you’re good. Don’t be like me and run through all of the vowels and waste precious letters that could be used on ones that can fit. Regardless of whether you win or lose, you’ll see your score and the correct word at the end of the level.

I used the Kindle’s toggle button to navigate and pick letters. You can use the keyboard as well. Check the menu options for assistance with how to play the game and what keyboard shortcuts to use.

For kids and those who prefer easy puzzles, there’s Hangman 4 Kids, also by Sonic Boom. It is a great way to keep kids occupied while improving their vocabulary at the same time.

Hangman is a game I’ll definitely enjoy having handy. There is a wide selection of words in varying degrees of difficulty, so it should keep me occupied for awhile.

Love Starbucks

“You can either use your cursor to space over to the letter and then “enter” or you can type the letter using Kindle’s keypad. Typing it is much quicker if you know the QWERTY keyboard. The game gives a clue as to what you’re looking for. For example, if you have to guess a food item, the word “food” will be spelled out in the section of the screen to the right of the hanging. No pencil necessary. Good price. It would be handy to give over to the kids so they have something to play on a long trip or in a waiting room, for example. Or if you have to wait and it’s too noisy to concentrate on reading!”

All Kindle games should model their graphics after Spelling Star as far as font size and clarity goes. The words are huge.

This game is geared more towards kids in the lower levels, but it uses your age to figure out what level to start you at. There are over 1000 words, and they have a very wide range of difficulty levels.

Spelling Star  as a whole is great for all ages. After taking a few minutes to get a hang of the game, I mastered all of the games pretty quickly, and moved on to the next level.

The games are timed, so make sure you complete all of the words before the clock runs out. It is better to get a word incorrect and get all of them done, than to not finish them.

There’s a little boy who serves as your guide throughout the game. As a young adult, I think he’s kind of amusing looking, but for kids, he’s a lot of fun. He guides you through each step, and explains what to expect in each game. He also tracks your points and lets you know how you did once you complete the games and difficulty levels.

Spelling Star helps you learn or brush up on your adjectives, verbs, and nouns. It also has sentences that you choose the best word for. Then, of course you have correct spellings and anagrams.

Navigation is pretty straightforward. I just used the keyboard to type in the letters. If you need to do anything else, the game will prompt you. I like that Spelling Star doesn’t over use the 5-way toggle. The only drawback to using the keyboard is that it is kind of small. So, finding the right keys can eat into time. But, you should be fine once you get the feel for the layout of the keyboard.

For more spelling related games, try Scripps Spelling Bee. It includes words from the National Spelling Bee list, and is more puzzle focused than direct spelling.  Also, if you want to work on your Spanish, try the Spelling Star: Spanish Edition.

SanDiegoJesse

“This is soooo much fun. I really didn’t expect it to be, but it has several different challenges and 100 levels. Really makes you think. Not very fond of being timed and at first I didn’t think I’d like it. But I’m hooked and it boosted me to Level 38 after a few minutes of play.”

Volume 1 of the NY Times Crosswords for the Kindle is a great set for beginners, or veterans who need a few easy puzzles to pass the time.

I admire anyone who does crossword puzzles on a daily basis. Even these easy ones have clues that I’ve never heard of. I am amazed at how easily some of my relatives and friends can answer clues that seem impossible to me.

NY Times Crosswords start off easy, and get progressively harder throughout the week. The first volume includes Monday-Wednesday puzzles, each in sets of 10. There are quite a few volumes available for the Kindle, so there is something for every skill level.

Navigation was fairly easy. I had a hard time seeing the numbers in the squares though. I don’t really think they can be any bigger without crowding everything into the screen. The newspaper equivalents are even smaller.

Navigation is primarily done through the 5-way toggle, but there are keyboard shortcuts if you need help with certain clues.  The 5-way is not the easiest tool to work with, but it can get you around the puzzle. You can reveal one letter, or the whole word if you need to. Good way to practice if you aren’t familiar with the way crossword puzzles work.

You aren’t limited to just one word answers. There are phrases as well.  Brush up on your quotes and common sayings.

The one thing I like the best about the Kindle version of the NY Times crosswords, is that it still gives you the same look and feel. The grey toned screen with the e-ink still gives you the “look and feel”of a real newspaper. You don’t have to worry about smudge marks. Computer versions are just not the same. They’re hard on the eyes, and aren’t as portable.

I am excited about having these crosswords handy. They’re a great way to keep the brain sharp and preserve mental well being.  Once you complete the 30 puzzles in Volume 1, try 90 more in Volume 2.

Gary Severance

“The puzzles are entertaining, most often following a theme. Some puzzles have circled letters that are repeated in more than one clue. Some have circled letters that when combined spell out a phrase or series of items related to the puzzle theme. Some crosswords have clues containing a single box that contains 2 letters. Finding these same two letter boxes in other clues sets the stage for answering an Across and a Down clue starting with the same box.”

Puzzle Baron was interesting because I picked up a lot of good philosopher’s quotes while playing. I was a little frustrated with the 5-way toggle button because it was hard to get it to position on the square I wanted.  Aside from that, I really enjoyed the game.  Catch Puzzle Baron while it is on sale for just .99 until September 12!

I solved a lot of the puzzles through context. The hint feature was really helpful in getting me started. I also read the Guide first to make sure I understood the basics of the game.

The guide provides some helpful tricks, like the most used letters in the alphabet, and lets you know that one letter works are either “I” or “A”. Two letter words are usually pretty easy to figure out too because they have common letters and vowels in them.

Your goal is the fill in letters until you complete the quote. When you fill in one letter, the same letter will be distributed across the board where appropriate.  I saw a lot of reviews praising this feature because it saves them a lot of time.

The Kindle’s menu button is your most handy tool. This is where you find the hints. You can also clear the game and start over. I had to do this once, because I got myself tangled up in a mess of letters that didn’t fit.

One part of solving cryptograms is figuring out what letters match to the numbers provided. If you can figure out the pattern, that can also help you solve the words. I mainly relied on the context clues, but kudos to those who can determine the number-letter patterns.

As far as navigation goes, I think the Oak Systems version runs a little smoother. Oak Systems has a specific cryptograms game called CodeWord, as well as Puzzle Pack 1, which includes cryptograms, as well as other fun puzzles.

Puzzle Baron has all 5 star reviews!

bshowers@hughes.net

“This is a very good cryptograms game. I really appreciate having the letter frequencies displayed. The one small complaint I have is that the cursor is a little slow to respond, but this is not uncommon with a lot of Kindle games (Amazon: beef up your processor!). I was also a little disappointed when I discovered that the quotations disappear after completing them (suggestion to the developer: leave the quotation intact, let us decide to delete the quotation or not).”

Word Soup is a another good word game for the Kindle. The object of the game is to find as many words as you can in a scrambled grid of letters.

The minimum amount of letters you need to have to form a word is three.  So no scrimping by with “an” or “is” or “it”!

Word Soup is like Scrabble in that you gain more points with words that have more unique letters than words with more common ones.  So, a word that contains a lot of common letters and vowels won’t be worth as much as one that has say: “J”.

When you find a word, connect each letter by selecting them with the 5-way toggle button. When you select each letter, and arrow is formed to connect them together. Click the toggle again when you’re done and the letters disappear from the grid.

On the side of the screen, there are keyboard shortcuts for you to use. You can quickly access the Rules, or shuffle the grid, for instance.  I wish more Kindle games would make it this easy to reference these tools.

One thing I like about Word Soup, is that it does a good job of distinguishing the selected letters from the rest. The blocks turn into circles. One suggestion might be to make the highlights a little more prominent so the cursor can be followed a little easier.

This is an easy game to pick up, but finding the words can be a challenge. You can play for speed with the timer, or you can play in an untamed, relaxed mode.

I think kids and adults alike will enjoy Word Soup.  Kids can have some fun while practicing their spelling. Overall, it is pretty intuitive graphic wise, and easy to navigate.

There are so many good Kindle word games to choose from.  This is great if you are a fan of word games, or want to work on your spelling skills.  A couple of suggestions: Scripps Spelling Bee and Scrabble are great Kindle games to try.

Atmananda

“I bought this today and it is a clever game concept. Instructions and graphics look professional and controls are easy (make sure you at least read the first page of the instructions). Unlike other word search games, the letters don’t need to be in just one direction, so you will have to also look “around the corner” for matching letters. I like the relaxed mode (no timer) and still have to manage to clear the whole field, but over all the game play is intuitive and it was fun to play right from the start. “

Word Search is part of the Puzzle Pack 1 collection created by Oak Systems Leisure Software.  But, they’ve also included separate games for each of their puzzles. Word Search itself has more than one volume.  So, if you solve all 50 of these puzzles, don’t worry, there are many more available.

I’ve always liked solving Word Search puzzles.  I did a bunch of them when I was in school.  Oak Systems uses unusual words and names, so it shakes things up a bit.  Volume 1 includes 50 puzzles with a variety of fun themes.  It is a great game for all ages.

When you first start, Word Search takes you to a tutorial page that explains how to play.  This is very helpful and this way, you can just get going pretty quickly.

To find the words in each puzzle, you use the Kindle’s 5-way toggle button to select the beginning and end of the word.  Once you do that, it will strick out the word and mark it off the list.  The words can go horizontal, vertical, diagonal, and even backwards.  That definitely shakes things up a bit.

The puzzles will give you a chance to learn more about the theme it features.  I tried one that involved airports.  So, I got a chance to learn the names of the airports in the US.

The graphics are very clear and easy to see.  The Kindle platform works great for the set up of Word Search.  The 5-way toggle button behaves well too and doesn’t lag at all.  The newer Kindle toggle buttons can just zoom all over the board.

You also have the choice of playing at your own pace, or against a timer.  Timers stress me out, but for others its a good way to work up your speed.

Angela

“This version is ECONOMICAL compared to purchasing the $3-4 hard copy at the store. The timer challenges me to focus and toevaluate far better than finding words manually”

M. Kolenc

“I’ve been waiting for quite some time for a word search Kindle game. I’m a big fan of word searches. I absolutely love them. I was so tickled to find this. I bought it and began playing right away. You simply use the five way controller to select the first and last letter of the word. Very user-friendly! They do time how long it takes you to complete the puzzle but there is no deadline. I think this is a great feature – to be able to see my progress and improvement. I couldn’t have asked for a better word search game. I can only ask that they make more volumes. I just can’t get enough! This is a great game for a great price!”

First off, you might want to move fast if you want to purchase Scripps Spelling Bee.  There’s an 0.99 sale going on right now, and it ends on August 29.  That’s just two days away.

I can now add Scripps Spelling Bee to my list of favorite Kindle games.  It includes three games: Word Search, Mystery Bee, and Honeycomb Hunt.

Word Search is an old familiar puzzle game that everyone knows about.  You use the 5-way toggle to select words that are vertical, horizontal and diagonal across the grid.  As you drag your cursor across the word, it will highlight the whole word.  It wasn’t too terribly challenging.

Mystery Bee is a lot like Hangman, but instead of a man, this version uses a bee.  Fill in the word before you complete all of the parts of the bee, obviously  Getting the letters wrong leads to parts being added.  As I said, its is pretty much the same as Hangman.  If you get enough points, you can use them to get hints and context clues.

Don’t be fooled by the “easy” levels.  They still have words that don’t come up in everyday language.  You’ll know what I mean.  I won’t reveal any because I don’t want to spoil the game.

In my opinion, Honeycomb Hunt was the hardest game in the whole collection.  You have to rotate sets of three honeycombs to create words from a list.  You use the 5-way toggle to highlight the honeycombs, and press previous or next page to move them counter clockwise and clockwise.

From the results list, you can select your favorite words and use them in the games.  You can select up to 60 words.

The graphics are really sharp.  I think the quality beats the other word games out there.  I can see why people would be confused at how this collection of game relates to spelling.  My best answer to this is that you are using the Scripps Spelling Bee words.  You’re also learning new words while you play the games.  For Mystery Bee, you’re also using your spelling skills to complete words.  If you want to try a more direct spelling game, try Spelling Star.

If you need instructions on how to play any of the three games in the collection, use the instruction manual provided in the game.  It is very helpful.  I tried just playing Honeycomb Hunt on my own, but didn’t realize that I had to use previous and next page buttons instead of the 5-way toggle to switch the honeycomb orders around.

I was really surprised to see so few reviews.

All I can say about CodeWord  for Kindle is, “wow”. I went in expecting to knock out a bunch of simple words and be done with the game in about 30 minutes.

That certainly wasn’t the case. There are 50 codeword puzzles and 50 cryptograms. So, you have a good sized selection. Be ready to put your brain to work because the vocabulary is quite challenging. You will find proper nouns and short phrases in there to shake things up.

The codeword puzzles are crossword puzzles basically. The game provides a few letters to get your started. At the bottom there is a grid and you fill in the letters that go with the numbers on the puzzle.

So, for example, for the number 9, you’ll find it on the puzzle, figure out what letter fits best in that particular block. If you can figure out the word from the ones already there, you are good, but be careful, the same number will be in other words too, so you will fill that same letter in for multiple words.

Cryptograms is really hard, especially for someone new to it like me. You have to figure out phrases by different famous figures such as Charles Dickens, Aristotle, or Helen Keller. The hard part is that you have to figure out what letters match up to the ones there. For example, for “A”, the letter to fill in might be “E”.

As for the graphics, they are really crisp and easy to see. The 5-way cursor moves easily through the grid. It took me a minute to figure out that I have to navigate the grid at the bottom, not the puzzle itself.

There are clues available, but use them sparingly because they penalize your time if you use them. If you get really stuck and want to give up, you can have the game just give you the whole solution. I did this for the first game just to get a better idea of what kind of words I was looking for. You can access these options by pressing “menu”.

BarbZ

“Display is great, easy to use, no delays, navigation is simple. You’ll be surprised how quickly you’ll go through the puzzles. I’ve had mine for 2 days, and I think I’ve completed more than 10 puzzles already. ”

If you enjoy crosswords, you’ll love CodeWord. It is a great way to expand your vocabulary and exercise your brain.

The latest addition to the Kindle game scene is Panda Poet.  Panda Poet is just about as creepy as it sounds.  However, the reviews are excellent and it comes from Spry Fox.  They hit the jackpot with their hit game Triple Town that came out a couple of months ago.

Panda Poet is a word game sort of like Scrabble.  You place letters on a board to form a word.  A panda is formed when you form a word in an open space on the board.  If you form a word near another panda, it makes the panda grow.  As the panda grows, new letters appear around the panda.  Your goal is to get the biggest panda or the longest word possible.

Here’s the catch: every time you form a word, the other letters on the board go one step closer to expiring.  Letters usually last about four to five rounds.  If a letter expires, it is replaced with a skull and limits the panda’s growth in that direction.  So, not only do you have to create the longest word possible, you have to think about where to place words to get the most letters before they expire.

I was amused at the way the pandas look as they grow.  One reviewer pointed out that the pandas are basically rectangles.  But, would this game be as interesting if it was just called the Rectangle Poet?  You also have to keep in mind that Spry Fox has only a monochrome e-ink screen to work with.  Maybe penguins will be next?

The scoring is a bit complicated, and one reviewer said that the “Help” screen could use some work.  However, you can easily pick up the gist of the game through playing.  Panda Poet is a fun, addicting game well worth the 3 bucks.

Check out the Panda Poet Kindle review on the Kindle Review Blog.