Word Snap

• Designer: uncredited
• Publisher: SD Toyz
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 8+
• Time: 40-60 minutes
• Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3GwF6Xr
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

WordSnap is the word-building puzzle game without a board! Use octagonal snap-together pieces to create words in any direction—vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Build your own crossword-style grid and unlock endless scoring possibilities. Perfect for word game pros or newcomers alike, WordSnap offers a fun, brain-flexing challenge from every angle.   Create a dynamic crossword puzzle-like layout without the confines of a game board; as words are built, unique patterns emerge, offering players unlimited scoring opportunities; download a free timer app to add an extra layer of excitement to your word-building sessions

The 100 tiles are mixed face down (or placed in a bag).  Players each start with a hand of 8 tiles.  On the first turn, the starting player must make a word of 2 or more letters.  After this, the active player must add one or more tiles to the board, making words in orthogonal and/or diagonal directions.  All new connections must make valid words.  There are some wild tiles in the game, when they are used, that particular tile is assigned a letter – and this tile will have the letter associated with it for the rest of the game.

Players score for all the words made on their turn.  Each letter has a scoring value on it and these are first summed up, and then any multipliers (from wild tiles) are then calculated.

The endgame is signaled when all the tiles have been drawn – and the game ends when a player is out of tiles OR no one can make a valid word.  The player with the most points wins.

My thoughts on the game

So at first glance, it looks like a clone of a familiar word building game that nearly everyone has.  And, while there is some similarity – I feel that Word Snap is different enough to stand on its own.  The big difference here is the lack of a board and the way that you can build your words freestyle by connecting the different pieces together.  For sticklers, the letter distribution and the point values are also different from Scrabble – so there is another way that they are not alike.

The lack of a board is somewhat free-ing; you can build off anything you like and you don’t have to worry about the boundaries.  It does also make things a little bit more difficult when you’re trying to use two tiles which are spaced far apart, and sometimes I need to use some of my tiles (facedown, to not give away their identity) to ensure that I have the right spacing in my mind as I try to come up with a new word!

There are a few strategies that are more important here. First off, the wild tiles work a bit different.  They have no inherent value themselves, so they will only multply the other tiles in your word.  Additionally, they are always active – which means that anyone who builds off of the word with a wild tile in it will also get the same benefit.   Thus it’s always a good idea to try to make a word which cannot be easily added upon.

Speaking of that, there are also a lot of “S” tiles in the game, and this leads to the frequent pluralization of words to make for an easy high scoring turn.  I’d definitely suggest being the player who draws the most “S”s out of the bag, this will be a sure fire way to do better.

If you like word games, this should be right up your alley.  The tiles allow for freeform word building, and the game is really only limited by the size of your table.  One of the versions comes in a nice zippered bag which can be used for both transport as well as a nice bag to draw the tiles from.

Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3GwF6Xr

Until your next appointment

The Gaming Doctor