Hoyle Word Games: You Know You Want to Play

I' m a logophile in the extreme. I love words. I love, also, playing games with words. It was with delight that I received a copy of Hoyle Word Games for my computer, therefore. (Most of these games can also be played on-line at www.flipside.com if you want to try them out or to play them for free against others). Hoyle Word Games is my favorite new program in a very long time! It's great. Okay, that's the opinion. Now, the details. There are nine games here.

Wordox and Double-cross take off from where Scrabble ends. The same basic premise, but in each you have a chance to undo the good work of other players. For example, in Wordox, if you add letters to a word someone else has laid down, they lose the points for the letters you have incorporated in the new word and you get them. Everyone plays off the same rack of tiles as the turns rotate. It is also possible to clear the board which can really mess up plans laid by previous players.

Then there is a dice game called Yacht. Ten lettered dice are rolled and players must make as many words (and as long as possible) as they can in their turn. (It's possible to shorten the time for play here which can be good as two minutes can be too long.) Then, depending on the number of words created and their length, players fill in a Yahtzee type score sheet. Categories include words of certain lengths (how many 3, 4and 5 letter words can you make?), slam (using all the letters at least once), straight (one word each of 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 letters), starter (words that begin with the same letter) and yacht (for exceeding a certain number of words. This is, by far, my favorite game. I am a total addict.

Hangman is here. Frankly, however, hangman is hangman. Even with the graphics of a cowboy's gallows instead of chalk lines and even with sound effects....well, it's the same game. You love it or you don't. I'm one of the don'ts.

Anagram and Enigma (a much more challenging cryptogram puzzler) are both fun if you like decoding. I found the manical monkeys and talking skulls in Anagram a bit over the top, but the kids who like to use my computer at school think this is great. Anagram is definitely my students' favorite.

Speedy Racer gives you a chance to see who is the fastest typist in the office. Personally, as my friend Mario typed 128 words per minute while I type about 70, I don't like playing this game. Still, if you're trying to get the kids to learn touch keyboarding, this might not be a bad supplement to their training.

And of course, if you're going to have word games, you have to have crosswords. There are more than 1000 here and they're pretty good. The program is easy to use though the clues aren't always easy. And there are WordSearches which I find boring as can be.

There is also "facemaker" which allows you to create your own personal graphics to represent yourself on screen. You can actually get something that looks a bit like yourself with some effort. Or you can just choose to be a dragon, a teddy bear or an ear of corn. Whatever best suits your personality is at your disposal.

The dictionary used here is the Websters New Word Dictionary. As with any dictionary, it is always behind the curve in terms of new vocabulary and everyone invariably uses words that are not here. On the other hand, it does a pretty good job of providing variations to words. The game allows you to decide if offensive language is playable ahead of time which is great when giving the game to kids.

If you want to play against the computer, Hoyle has supplied a variety of opponents. You can make them as serious or as silly as you want. For example, in Word Yacht, one opponent is Miss Tardee. She is a chemistry teacher who reads cheat books, personal ads and blows things up as she plays. Her comments include such insights as "I can't read this. I've never even been to Eastern Europe" when her collection of letters comes up. You can also play without opponents. Of course, you can also go to flipside and play against real people from all over the world.

The installation of this program is easy. There were no problems. It's also nice to say that the system requirements here are low. Lots of people can enjoy it. The requirements from the box are: Operating System: MAC. Windows 95/98/00/ME/XP, Pentium 133 or higher, 16 MB RAM, 4x CD-ROM, 640x480 @ 16-bit color, 165 MB hard disk space. or MAC Requirements/Recommendations PowerPC or PowerMac G3 including iMac, System 7.5.3 or higher, 32 MB unused RAM, 4x CD-ROM, 640x480 @ thousands of colors, 165 MB hard disk space.

The graphics here are solid. There is not much movement. It's not required. The text is always clear and readable. It's just exactly what one wants and needs from word games.

The sounds here are fine. There are dice rolling, and bells and such. Most of the sounds are the characters who make cute, sarcastic and amusing comments that are sometimes genuinely funny the first time around. By the second time around, I like to turn them off. They do get old after awhile.

The game is conveniently l tailored to allow you to choose an appropriate level of difficulty for you. My students describe the levels as easy, intermediate and "who are they kidding." I like the "who are they kidding" level. Hoyle describes the level as easy, medium and hard. I do find, however, that for a real logophile such as myself, sometimes my vocabulary doesn't coincide with the dictionary's. In other games I've played, the system allowed me to add words to the dictionary. This one doesn't.

In the end, I highly recommend Hoyle Word Games for anyone who loves word games. If you want to give this a try before buying, point your browser to www.flipside.com's hoyle games pages, or you can download a limited demo version at www.hoylegames.com.