KANSAS CITY, Mo. — First, there was Words with Friends (Scrabble), then Hanging with Friends (Hangman). Now, the folks at Zynga have released Scramble With Friends — their take on Boggle.
The game starts out much like the other Zynga games — click a button, and it’ll give you a list of friends / Facebook friends / Twitter friends who are playing. From there, you simply challenge one to a game.
One of the differences between this game and the others in the “… with Friends” series is that you’re limited to a certain number of times you can play in a given period. They measure this in tokens — you get 14 per day for free, to use however you see fit. Each game costs one token. Additionally, you get one “Power-Up” per round, and can buy another for a second token.
The “Power-Up”s allow you to freeze the clock for a short time, rearrange the letters, or (my favorite) just plain show you a word that hasn’t been guessed yet. In this example, the word “beeyard”:
The first round plays like a normal round, simply finding words with the letters connected together. The second and third rounds add double-letter and triple-letter score to the mix. The letters themselves are scored in a Scrabble-like fashion. Best score after 3 rounds wins the game.
(I can’t believe I lost this game by 3 points.)
The game is available for the iPhone/iPad; it’s not available yet for Android. It comes in a free version (with ads) or a paid version (without).
