OUR FAVOURITES

Word games to make you th_nk

The first crossword was published more than 100 years ago and we’ve come a long way since then. Not only can we enjoy modern essentials such as indoor toilets, electric toothbrushes and home pizza delivery – our puzzles are way, way better too.

These are some of our favourite, innovative word games: so order in an extra-large double-pepperoni, load up one of these titles and marvel at the brilliance of the modern world.

Scribblenauts Unlimited

With Maxwell’s magic notebook, just write the name of almost any object you can think of and it will appear. This gives you lots of fun ways to solve puzzles. Sure, you can summon a ladder to help that cat out of a tree. But why not a jetpack? Or a flying griffin?

It gets even more fun when you throw in adjectives: try asking for a “giant pink friendly sea monster” or “sentient wardrobe”, or watch how a “hungry fireman” responds to a “burning pretzel”.

Our sea monster and wardrobe make friends with a “colossal actress.”

TypeShift

At first glance, it’s all so simple: you’ve got a few columns of letters which slide up and down to create words, until all the letters are used up. But add in multiple columns and puzzles with specific clues to solve and then it all starts to get deliciously devious.

You might mean to play for a few minutes of your commute, but you’ll end up getting everyone on the bus involved as you try to figure out that one last word.

This… this is going to be a tough one.

Letter Fridge

In this colourful tribute to a favourite hobby of kitchen-owners across the land, you don’t tap to fill in the missing letters – you slide them around on the fridge door to make your wonky words. It’s terrifically tactile and tons of fun.

Our pro move? Using one letter to push a group of other letters around.

SpellSpire

Do you see what they did, there? Find words as quickly as you can to blast out magic and destroy the goblins. The more letters you use, the stronger the spell, so dust off your dictionary and get ready for some wizardly wordplay.

Eat “tentacles”, you suckers!

Alphabear

Adorable bears are plopped down in a big field of letters and the more words you can spell, the bigger they’ll grow. The best bit, though? Finish a level and you’ll find a new bear, whose catchphrase will be based on the words you created.

Don’t feel defeated by this one.

Catchy Words

In this cutting-edge take, use the AR (Augmented Reality) feature to summon bubbles of letters all around you, which you’ll have a limited time to physically chase down and grab.

L-O-V-E really is all around you.