iPhone App: WordPops

December 8th, 2008

= 3 stars

WordPops is a an iPhone game that based on its description, is right up my alley. It’s a mix of Wurdle and Tetris. You’re presented with a grid of bubbles with letters on them on which you identify words by dragging on the iPhone screen with your finger. Once a word is found, the bubbles in the word disappear. You start with two rows of bubbles and more float in from the bottom. The game ends when the screen fills with bubbles.

The Good

Very intuitive gameplay. Just launch the app and start finding words.
Simple and appealing graphics. There’s a satisfying “pop” visual when the bubbles vanish.
Some bubbles have special effects on gameplay when popped - there are 2x, 3x, and 5x bubbles that act as score multipliers, a mutate bubble that changes the letters, an ice bubble that halts the appearance of new bubbles, and the fire bubble which explodes and wipes out neighboring bubbles. These special bubbles have satisfying visual effects when they burst, in particular the ice bubble.

The Bad

No sound. Bubbly popping sounds or groovy background music would be welcome.
No “path” as you trace over letters, as with Wurdle.
The gameplay is a bit repetitive. What if the bubbles changed direction based on iPhone tilt? Also, Wurdle is most fun when identifying really long words. Because WordPops starts with few bubbles that increase in number, you have less letters when you’re doing really well and it’s actually more fun when the screen is nearly full. This has me thinking the game might be better if the goal were reversed: you start with a grid full of bubbles and they gradually disappear. However - that might make this game a bit too similar to Wurdle for comfort.

Conclusion

WordPops is in that middle ground of a decent game, better than free, but not awesome enough where I’d call it a “must have” like Trism or Wurdle - I’d definitely recommend Wurdle over WordPops. But if you’ve played Wurdle a billion times and are looking for a variation on that theme, check out WordPops. $1.99 is a fair price.

For more information, visit the WordPops web page at Larva Labs.

(This review requested by developer)

iTunes App Store Link: