all jumbled up

i seem to be playing a lot of DS games these days. one game that i played a decent amount when i got it and that i picked up again recently was jumble madness for DS. i suppose i looked up the game around the time i was going through my scramble aka boggle phase. i’d always enjoyed the jumble puzzles in the newspaper even though i was never very good at it, so i was looking forward to improving my skeelz.

this edition features approximately a year’s worth of regular puzzles, which works as well as you’d expect. there are small but worthwhile advantages in having a DS version of a pen-and-paper puzzle, in particular portability and a hint system. in IGN’s review craig harris says the temptation to cheat is impossible to resist, but i think most people aren’t going to feel the need to try to outwit the game’s basic scoring system and time limit. he also complains about the fact you can’t see the final punchline jumble before finishing the main four, but i didn’t find that to be a significant disadvantage either.

the game offers some additional modes, mostly in the form of jumble crosswords which are much easier and more random than either a regular jumble or a regular crossword, and mahjong-type games which include a pointless “quest” mode where you travel around the globe winning souvenirs (well, at least the music changes unlike the main mode). i don’t really see the point of mahjong-type word games, although actually i suppose it really requires multiple players, but the game does give you extra points if you find the jumbled-up bonus words. i didn’t get to try the game’s multiplayer modes, but i did sit around with some of my siblings and just played against each other in some of the regular puzzles, and that was pretty fun.

the production values are, as you’d expect, extremely low, but not offensively so, and the appeal of good, clean jumble fun is high if you’re a fan and need more than just a daily dose. although i just found out that they have daily puzzles on their official site (a flash version, with basically the same interface as the DS version), as well as a few new spin-off games. sweet. another site to add to my list of daily time sinks!

one not-so-jumbled-up link:
– official site of the DS game

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