Ngmoco Releases their 'WordFu' Letter Puzzler
posted February 26th, 2009 11:11 PM EST by arn in $0.99, Reviews, Word, iPhone games, iPod touch games
Ngmoco has released their latest game to the App Store. This time it's a word game called WordFu [App Store]. The game is available for an introductory price of $0.99 and falls in their category of so-called "fast" apps which aim to deliver high quality games at low prices.
WordFu is a word-finding game that's described as "the ultimate word puzzler" which incorporates the use of realistic on-screen dice with word finding.
The game's 3d dice resembles our favorite dice roller Mach Dice — and for good reason. It appears Ngmoco has licensed the Mach Dice dice engine for the game. That means you get the same realistic dice rolling and pseudo-3d perspective with tilt that also comes with the original app.
The game itself is simple at its core, but is delivered with the style and polish we've come to expect from Ngmoco's titles. You are presented with 9 dice with different letters on each side. You are given a bit of time to shake your phone to rescramble the dice or you may simply choose to re-roll a single die by flicking it. Once you are happy with your set of letters (or time runs out), you can start the game which gives you 45 seconds to find as many words as possible. Letters can be used more than once per word in standard mode or can be limited to one use in Shaolin mode (see options). As you progress, you can even get power-up dice which offer special abilities including freezing time, rerolling one die, and doubling your score.
Here's a developer video showing off some of the game:
The game takes its kung-fu inspiration seriously and is complete with over-the-top (and thoroughly enjoyable) sound effects. The game offers local highscore ranks, achievements and head-to-head Wi-Fi play.
At only a $0.99 introductory price, it's seems easily worth it.
App Store Link: WordFu, $0.99
video made me smile =)
Looks like a good 3 minutes of fun. Surely 2.
This is game isn't bad, but I like the Motionx physics engine and their game Poker quest more. This game doesn't have much long term replay value aside from the achievements. This app probably won't stay on my iphone for long but at least it was only a buck
Wow, I truly thought that "flick a die" said "f— a die".
LOL.
Nice video!!
I like how ngmoco's games involve some sort of achievement system, it's like the Xbox 360.
I don't think I'll buy this, looks too confusing.
If a lite version comes around I'll try it out and see if I like it.
Yes… the English language can be very confusing.
:-s
I think I have just spent a >4 hours playing this… that just about said it all. For 0.99 it's a steal.
Looks like all the other boggle games, that never got reviews because they weren’t put out by ngmoco. I’m sure it’ll be free in a month and plastered with banners.
I am a fan of Word games. Too many word games coming up in the past 2 weeks. Recently shifted to WordsWorth from Wurdle. Will wait for more reviews before buying Word Fu.
Yeah, definitely says f#€k a die. Can't believe they didn't notice
@Penguin Man, I am buying this now because of that observation! You should ask Ngmoco for a commission!
@good, this game appears to be featured because of good production, included wi-fi, and nice overall polish. Which other vocab games released recently @$.99 have that?
Of course it says "F– a die!" Why do you think the game is called Word FU?
Man, this is a very unique, and thought provoking game. This is the first "word" game I've purchased, and I'm very pleased. I have contemplated Scrabble many times, Word Fu almost fills that void….I like the time limit that the game currently runs on is fine, I think that the game soul highly benefit from say two moe longer times as an option.
Very good job Ngmoco! Thanks.
Wow this game is brilliant. Its like a ninjad up version of the popular channel four word game- Countdown, but without Carol Vordeman. Hold up – Carol isnt on channel 4 either. It's like countdown(ish) – with extra pow!
I'm the developer of Mach Dice and yes indeed, they are using some of my code for the dice physics! As a hobbyist iPhone app developer, it's very exciting to see it used in an actual professional product. And this game's a lot of fun to play! It's the first game that I've gotten my wife to play on my iPhone. In fact, it's a little hard to pry it away from her so I can continue programming on it… =)