Vincent Ferrari
03-09-2009, 05:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.giantcrayon.com/product_detail.php?prodid=98' target='_blank'>http://www.giantcrayon.com/product_...l.php?prodid=98</a><br /><br /></div><p><img height="414" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1236447775.usr18053.jpg" width="550" /></p><p><em>Figure 1: A new game of Wordsoup begins!</em></p><p>Close your eyes. I want you to imagine the name Pocketmac. They're the company behind Pocketmac for Blackberry and Pocketmac for Windows Mobile. Essentially, if you have either of those kinds of devices, you've run into Pocketmac. Now what if I told you they were now making games under the Giant Crayon brand?</p><p><MORE />Their first release is Giant Crayon Wordsoup, a game that is based pretty squarely on a few other games we've come to know and love in the "make a list of words from one group of letters" genre, but with a pretty nice twist which I'll get to later.</p><p><img height="414" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1236447770.usr18053.jpg" width="550" /></p><p><em>Figure 2: Just a few more words to go!</em></p><p>Play progresses exactly as you would expect it to. You fill in letters from the bottom into the blanks at the top, and you keep doing that until all the words are filled in. In the upper right corner is a circle that fills as time elapses, below that an "Enter" button in case you want to control the entry of letters with your mouse, and a jumble button that jumbles the stickies with the letters on them in the hopes that you'll find a few words by shuffling letters.</p><p>When you finish the six letter word, you're allowed to proceed to the next round.</p><p><img height="414" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1236448590.usr18053.jpg" width="550" /></p><p><em>Figure 3: Time to move it along!</em></p><p>When you've finished the round, you move on to a new group of six letters and start all over again. When you run out of completed levels, you're done. If you do well enough, you get to have the glory of having your name in the High Score list.</p><p><img height="415" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1236447762.usr18053.jpg" width="550" /></p><p><em>Figure 4: That's what you're striving for, folks.</em></p><p><PAGE />At the beginning of this Quick Look, I did note that there was a twist to this one that I really liked. My wife is a big fan of Text Twist, a similar game in the word puzzle genre. The problem is she plays it so much, she's gotten to recognize the jumbled letters and all the word combinations. No, I'm not kidding; the woman is a genius. With Wordsoup, though, you don't have to get bored. They've thought ahead and given you the ability to add your own list of words!</p><p><img height="422" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1236447766.usr18053.jpg" width="422" /></p><p><em>Figure 5: The word list editor from Wordsoup.</em></p><p>This feature, to me, is the best part of the game. If you think about it, the possibilities are endless. You can add foreign words (brush up on your Spanish!), technical terms, chemistry words, medical terms, etc. Not only is Wordsoup educational for the English language, it's almost as educational as a good set of flash cards, and if your word list gets long enough, you'll rarely if ever see reruns.</p><p>Kudos to them for putting that much value into such an inexpensive game.</p><p>The last thing I want to mention is the company itself. The first copy of this game I played was version 1.0 and it wasn't very good. The customizable word list feature wasn't there, the included word list was too short, and it just felt half-baked. I let the developers know what the problem was and they incorporated all the things I thought were wrong with it into the final version of the game. I like a developer who's responsive and who fixes their mistakes, and the Giant Crayon folks have proven to me that they care about their products and how they're presented to you, the customer.</p><h1>Conclusion</h1><p>I did enjoy this game. I enjoyed it a lot more after they added some polish and made it a better experience overall. It's a fun family game and the word list feature distinguishes it from other Text Twist clones in a pretty decisive way. For $9.95, it's a great value for parents and kids alike. It can be purchased directly from the <a href="http://www.giantcrayon.com/product_detail.php?prodid=98" target="_blank">Giant Crayon website</a> and is available for Mac OS only.</p><p>Oh yeah, and as if the great price and neat features weren't enough, there's also a 90 day money bac<em>k guarantee!</em></p><p><em>Vincent Ferrari is an Apple fan, videoblogger, blogger, writer, and all-around geek from the Bronx. He works in the IT Department of a cellular phone company that shall not be named, and lives in a very comfortable apartment with his lovely wife, two lovely cats, three Macs, two iPhones, and God-knows-how-many iPods of varying age.</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//ppct/auto/1240336793.usr1.gif" /></p><p><strong>Do you enjoy using new hardware, software and accessories, then sharing your experience with others? Then join us on the <a href="http://www.thoughtsmedia.com/reviewteam.php" target="_blank">Thoughts Media Review Team</a>! We're looking for individuals who find it fun to test new gear and give their honest opinions about the experience. It's a volunteer role with some great perks. Interested? <a href="http://www.thoughtsmedia.com/reviewteam.php" target="_blank">Then click here for more information.</a></strong></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//ppct/auto/1240336793.usr1.gif" /></p>