In the era of smartphones and tablets, many people spend hours playing word games on their devices daily. Lots of people enjoy word games; not only do they come in a variety of forms, sizes, and levels of complexity, but they also make you feel intelligent when you play them. People used to play word games like “Scrabble GO” and “Boggle With Friends” on Android devices during the first lockdown in 2020. After all, they needed to keep their minds active and fingers busy. However, as this list demonstrates, the genre takes the basic concept and develops it creatively and unexpectedly.
1. Wordscapes
Wordscapes is an Android title that stands out because it’s just one big puzzle. Instead of forming words from randomly selected letters for each turn, you must find all the available words within a grid. There will either be 5 tiles horizontally and 10 tiles vertically or vice versa. The goal is to use them all without running out of moves. This means swapping 2 adjacent tiles with other ones to become part of a word. When this happens, though, both tiles disappear forever, so decide your words carefully. You’ll also earn coins as you play through levels and boosters like bombs and lightning strikes that destroy multiple tiles at once.
2. Wordfeud
Wordfeud is an excellent example of free word Android games that give you more letters than Scrabble does. Players begin with 7 tiles each and only have 8 seconds to place their word on the board before it gets locked down forever. When someone uses all their letters, they pass on the remaining ones in their rack until one person’s rack is empty while creating longer words in the meantime.
However, this game is truly unique in how challenging it can be. If you can’t think of any good words or don’t know what they even mean, you may find yourself losing very quickly. Other players will simply take advantage of your ignorance and capitalize on it. To win this game, you’d better have a large vocabulary.
3. Word Search
The idea behind this game isn’t necessarily to establish words but to look for a hidden word within a grid. As you play through levels, more and more words will be added until there are dozens of them. In the beginning, these words may only be 3-letters long, but they’ll become longer as you advance, boosting the difficulty.
4. Scrabble Go
Scrabble is the classic word game everyone is familiar with. Its most popular version can be played for free on Facebook right now. However, lots of people enjoy playing classic board games like this one on their mobile phones whenever they want without setting anything up. With Scrabble Go, you can experience that same fun and convenience but in a digitized format.
Play against real people or the computer’s artificial intelligence (AI) as you try to form words from tiles randomly selected each turn. If your comment is not valid according to the official rules of Scrabble, your opponent will earn more points than you do by placing their letters atop yours. Of course, the rest of the rules are generally true to those of the board game version, Scrabble.
5. Bonza Word Puzzle
Bonza Word Puzzle is a term search game that has you looking for words within grids. You can earn coins and multipliers, which increase your score and the amount of time before the grid starts to fill up with letters again. There’s also a daily challenge where you’re given a new grid every 24-hours, and the goal is to find all the words it contains as fast as possible.
If you make sure you complete this challenge, it’s best to start from one corner and go from left to right or top-to-bottom until every tile has been used at least once. Starting in random spots can make finding certain words much more complicated since they may be separated by other words, which causes an impediment. If you get stuck, try finding the center of the grid and work your way outwards.
6. Word Shaker
In this game, not only do you have to make as many words as possible before time runs out, but your letters disappear each turn as well. Unfortunately, you have a limited supply of replacements available so use them wisely. It’s better to start with 5 tiles instead of 10 if you don’t think you can constitute many words without running out.
On top of that, certain enemies called kobolds cause problems when you come across them, such as blocking your path, stealing your tiles, etc. Word Shaker is a great word game because it involves strategy and knowing when to replace tiles, so you can form words more effectively. It’s also straightforward to play without any complicated menus or anything like that, making for smooth gameplay.
7. Kitty Letter
Kitty Letter is a fun word game based on Scrabble’s concept. Like other word games, you have to form words from randomly selected letters for each turn. However, this title goes about it differently. Players begin with 8 tiles instead of 7 and must “power up” their tiles to get bonus points before playing. There are many ways to manage these power-ups. For example, using 2 identical tiles at once allows you to merge them into one that scores double points. Meanwhile, you must get rid of letters that are not part of any valid words.
This helps you earn extra points without knowing what the words mean. It’s also possible to lock down your opponent’s letters if they cause your word to be invalid, so they can’t score any points from it. The game is free to play but does contain ads you must watch before and after each level or wait for them to expire independently. There’s no way to turn them off or avoid them since this version of Kitty Letter must be played online.
8. Word Chums
Word Chums is a unique word game because it takes place in an MMORPG-style world called “Chumville.” You take control of either a boy or girl character as you try to survive the harsh conditions of this world. First, choose your gender and customize your avatar with clothes, hairstyles, accessories, etc. There are hundreds of options available initially.
Therefore, you will likely spend a lot of time looking for just the right ones before truly starting the game. When that’s all said and done, you must play through several levels where it’s necessary to form words from randomly selected letters for each turn. For example, a life bar may slowly decrease whenever you don’t think of any words quickly enough. If it entirely runs out, it signifies “game over”.
9. Sticky Terms
In this fast-paced word game, you have to find as many words as possible before the time runs out. There is a set amount of time for each turn in the beginning, so it’s crucial to establish many short words instead of just one or two long ones that take more time. As with most games like this, be careful which words you choose because some will cause your score to decrease upon completion.
For example, constituting letters such as “x” and “q” will reduce your word length. Just wait until they’re no longer red before selecting them. If you manage to keep your score multiplier up by continuously making words (and not letting any tiles reach the bottom), then you’ll earn a gold star, and the multiplier will reset.
10. DEADWORD
Deadword is a title with words modeled after horror movies like “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Friday the 13th”. The gist is to defeat your opponent by taking control of their body, weapons, and more. To do this, though, you’ll need to comprise words from letters that are unsystematically selected for each turn. For example, if there’s an axe in front of you, you may earn points by using any 4-letter word.
After all, it’s composed of 3 different weapon types (axe, bowie knife, machete). However, be careful which words you choose because some will cause your character to bleed. When they lose too much blood, their life bar runs out. This means the game is over unless you can find some way to restore blood in the meantime.