Verbosity Review

Verbosity is a simple word game. Players get seven tiles that look a little like old typewriter keys, and have to rearrange them to form words in the empty slots below. Players have 90 seconds. Upon completion users are rewarded for words found and attempted, hot streaks and for finding “rare” words and are penalized for repeated words and “worst cold streaks."

The game isn't complex, but it is very challenging. I seldom found more than a small percentage of the total words and I consider myself a good word game player. This is the sort of game that allows every term in the dictionary, so it will put other wordsmiths to the test. Also, being rewarded for rare words is fun. It would be helpful to have some clarification as to what rare means, like if it means long or obscure words, but it's an interesting spin. The best way to earn points is to make long steaks without repeating words or submitting anything misspelled or guessed.I don’t mind being penalized for repeated words, but would like to see a list of already played words in an update.

Verbosity has overly complex controls. Rather than tapping on words and hitting a submit button, users learn a series of single and double-fingered swipes and taps to submit and delete words and to shuffle tiles. The graphics are very retro. Verbosity has a groovy 1960's - 1970's vibe about it.

Beetle Nut Games promises an update soon featuring a multiplayer mode and additional language support. With multiplayer enabled the game will become much more challenging and will be addicting by those who love games like Boggle and Bookworm with a retro twist. I hope the multiplayer mode includes online play.