Appletell reviews Scrabble for iPad

Category: Games
Seller: Electronic Arts
Requirements: iPhone OS 3.2 or later
Compatibility: iPad
File Size: 12.6MB
Version Reviewed: 1.0.55
Price: $9.99
Age Rating: 4+

You can play Scrabble the old fashion way, on the go, on your iPhone, with cards, and with dice. Now, you can play it on your iPad, too, and there are plenty of reasons why you’d want to. The screen is big enough to not require zooming, you don’t have to (physically) set much of anything up, and you can play over the net with your friends on Facebook. But are Scrabble for iPad’s improved graphics enough to make it that much better than Words with Friends HD or even Scrabble for iPhone?

Yup.

Words with Friends HD is a great game, don’t get me wrong, but the title indicates why it might not be right for everyone. It lacks AI. Meaning, if you have no friends, or more realistically, your friends are sick of playing Scrabble with you, you’re mostly out of luck. Sure, you could play some random dude on the Internet, but what if you’re without Internet? Well, Scrabble for iPad has you covered there. Plus, it has the exact same rules with which you’re already familiar, including placement of multiplier spaces. And it’s only a few more dollars, anyway. But wait, there’s more.

While you might think Scrabble for iPad is basically just an upscaled version of Scrabble for iPhone, you’d only be mostly correct. It retains all of the same features (dictionary, best word, Facebook integration, WiFi play and single player), and it adds one new feature: support for the Scrabble Tile Rack app for iDevices. This app allows players to privately view their own—and only their own—tile racks, while using the iPad as the central game board. Is this the most expensive way to play Scrabble? Only if you have 4 iPhone 3GSs and a 3G iPad with maxed out memory.

Okay, so it’s a bit silly, but the app is free and it could be a fun way to play Scrabble if you have all the iGear already anyway. Alternatively, you could always just pass the iPad around for each turn like normal people, which may be preferred because of network responsiveness. More about that later.

Gameplay is pretty much exactly what you’d expect. If you’ve never played Scrabble on an iDevice, then let me explain.

First, how many people are playing? Just you? Then tap “Play Now.” If there is more than one player, then you have choices. You can play over Facebook, which is a great way to handle multiplayer games since other players don’t have to own Scrabble or an iDevice, or even be anywhere close to each other. All they need is a Facebook account. And it works great, too.

You could also do “Local Network Play,” “Pass’n Play,” or “Party Play.” Local network implies you have more than one iDevice on the same network with Scrabble installed. Pass’n Play is when the iPad is the only device being used, and the Party Play mode uses the Tile Rack app mentioned before. All gameplay is the same except for Party Play. In Party Play, instead of choosing tiles straight from your tile rack and adding them to the board, you have to assemble your word on your iDevice and then send it to the iPad’s tile rack and then drag it to the board. It’s an extra step and it’s kind of frustrating. It makes me wish this game had a way to select more than one tile at a time and drag it as a whole word, or just let you place the word to the board directly from the iDevice with the Tile Rack app. It doesn’t seem like something that would be that hard to implement.

Also, any game options that involve the local network can be pretty sluggish. For instance, it sometimes takes a while for two iPads to find each other. Other times, it happens instantly. This network issue pops up from time to time when submitting your play as well. Often I found myself waiting up to a minute for the game to tell my wife’s iPad that I had made a play. But realistically, these are issues that EA should be able to work out in an update, so I’m not concerned. The basics of the game are all right where they should be. The graphics are great and the gameplay is just as you’d expect. Plus it’s more fun than physical Scrabble because there’s no set up, clean up, score keeping, lost pieces, etc.

Other than the Tile Rack app, there really isn’t a ton different from the iPhone version of Scrabble. But the minor differences are still pretty significant. On iPhone, the board has to be zoomed in to be viewed comfortably. It’s understandable on a mobile device such as the iPhone, but the iPad is clearly large enough to handle the whole board at once. So, while you could play the iPhone version that you might already own on your iPad, you’d likely get frustrated that you keep having to zoom in to the board when your iPad shouldn’t have to. Plus the iPad app’s tiles have wood grain!

Okay, so the main differences between the iPad and iPhone versions of Scrabble are almost entirely cosmetic. It’s easy enough to say, but you know you don’t want to play the iPhone version upscaled on your iPad. The truth is that this one feature is enough to warrant an upgrade, but I think EA should have considered making this a free upgrade to the iPhone app. At the very least, the iPad version should be a Universal app, supporting both iPad and iPhone. There’s no reason why they can’t include the lower-res version of the game with the higher priced iPad game.

Oh, and one quick suggestion for EA about this game. Please fix the dictionary. It’s super annoying to type your word, hit enter, find out that it’s not a word, have to hit the keyboard icon again because the keyboard has dropped away, then hit the X button to clear the word and do the process all over again. Just leave the keyboard up, and when a word is submitted, highlight it so you can start typing again right away. Thanks.

Overall, Scrabble for iPad is the clear choice amongst iPad multiplayer crossword games. It’s better than Words with Friends HD because of its Facebook integration and single player AI. Plus, the other features such as the dictionary and Best Word are great. Playing the game with the Tile Rack app is novel, but the real reason you want this game is because it has all the great stuff that EA did with the iPhone version, formatted perfectly for the iPad.

Appletell Rating:

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