Red Herring Review

Red Herring is one of those simple ideas that I'm surprised I've not seen before. It lacks some peril, which might have gone some way to making it all the more compelling, but as an interesting new take on word puzzles it's still quite entertaining.

Each level of Red Herring offers four categories and a series of words. Players then have to figure out which category that individual words belong to. On easy mode, this is predictably quite easy. Categories are listed already, so it's simple enough to figure out where to drag the words. On normal, some of the words have already been correctly placed but it's down to the player to figure out what each category is. Set to the hardest difficulty level, Red Herring leaves it down to the player entirely to figure out all the categories and all the placements.

It's a simple idea but one that certainly becomes more challenging as one works their way up the difficulty levels. I found the most satisfying was normal, as hard sometimes felt a little too bewildering when up against some of the harder categories. It's fun to figure out though, although the satisfaction solely comes from beating the level. There are no time limits to keep to or scores to aim for, so competitive sorts might not be so excited by what's on offer here.

Still, Red Herring is oddly entertaining for the word game fan. 50 puzzles are available for free with more purchasable for $0.99 per pack, and the temptation is there, even if the competition isn't. As a fairly relaxing experience, it does a fine job. If only it offered a little more bite.