WOW: World of Words is great fun for anyone who is even remotely interested in word games. For casual gamers, it does a lot of things right that some other word games don't. For instance, all players play simultaneously—there is no need to wait 15 minutes between turns for your opponent to carefully choose just the right word (cough: Scrabble). If you're not a great speller, it doesn't really matter—if you know what a word starts and ends with, and it's at least 5 letters long, it's fair game. For the most part, there is no need to nitpick on spelling (cough: Scrabble and Boggle). In addition, reading through the list of words at the end of each round is not as drab as it seems, since even then there is some strategy involved in choosing which words to say first.

 

If the players in your group like to make up words just in case they're real, it's good to have a dictionary on hand (preferably searchable on a mobile device) to verify the validity of a word. Also, the 30-60 minute play time for a single game can feel a bit long, but it's easy enough to cut it shorter by reducing the number of cards.

 

Before our first play, one player heard the rules and was very underwhelmed, expecting it to be a boring, educational exercise. However, when playing the game, he completely turned around and really got into it. This game is one that you wouldn't know how challenging it is until you give it a try. And I am glad that I did—it is a simple, fun, and competitive game that is a great fit for casual gamers.

 

Pros: Simultaneous play, challenging, fun

Cons: Can feel a bit long for some groups

 

One element that separates "WOW" from most of the other word games currently available is its "creativity element". Most other word games provide you with a sequence of letters and you are required to manipulate them in various ways to form words. The letters provided limit your creativity and you are rarely able to create words much longer than "house" or "banana". The current games boil down to a "rearrange-the-letters" puzzle. Conversely "WOW" frees your mind to generate a myriad of words with 8-9-10-11 or more letters.

Many of the challenges may leave you scratching your head. I recently struggled with first letter H, last letter C. It's tough to come up with many answers in one minute but there are dozens of common words including the following: hectic, havoc, heroic, humanistic, hedonistic, holistic, heretic, hygienic and hypnotic.

Your mind is not put in a cage but is set free.

 

 

How appropriate that at our event, The Wonderful World of Words, we played WOW -- World of Words. The fourth and final of the four word games we played has the simplest of rules. If you watch the video, you'll be ready to play in under three minutes.

I was worried that the game was so simple that it wouldn't hold the interest of our word sharks, but two tables played the game for close to two hours straight, foregoing the chance to try another of the games. Sometimes simple is good.

 

WOW is produced by U.S. Games, a specialist in card games. Instead of burdened with a useless board, WOW is small enough to carry in your pocket, so it's a great travel game for word lovers. And the price is right: eight bucks.