Wordsy
- Designer: Gil Hova
- Publisher: Allplay
- Players: 1 – 6
- Ages: 10+
- Time: 20 Minutes
- Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4gCOSoC
Wordsy is a streamlined re-implementation of Prolix.
Each round, players study the 8 letters (always consonants) on the board in real time. The first player to write down a word flips a 30-second timer. That player is now the fastest player, and every other player now has 30 seconds to write down their word. After 7 rounds, players add the scores of their best 5 words, plus their bonuses. The player with the most points wins!
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Gameplay Walkthrough
Each player is given a scoring board and a dry erase marker. Wordsy is played over seven rounds. Each round, eight different cards showing consonants will be flipped up, and you need to find a single word that scores as many points as possible using them. Four point cards are placed on the table (5, 4, 3, 2) showing how many points the letters above them will be worth.
Deal out cards above each point card. If there are ever more than two rare letter cards, or more than two of the same letter, that card is discarded and a new card is put out. The first two letters are worth 5 points, the next two worth 4, the two after that worth 3, and the final two worth 2. Each player studies them, trying to discover a word that uses as many of them as possible (or at least earns as many points as possible). The word can use the letters in any order.
You don’t need all of the letters in your word to be available — you can pick a word that uses letters beyond those shown on the table — but you’ll only get points for the letters on display.
The first player to write down a word flips a 30-second timer. That player is now the fastest player, and every other player now has 30 seconds to write down their word. At that point, players score their word, taking points for the letters they used from the display. You can only use each card in the display once, so extra occurrences simply do not score.
Some rarer letters (like Q or V) are worth extra points, as shown on the card. Most of the usual word game rules apply – no proper nouns, no hyphenated words, no fake words. Also, you cannot use any word that was scored by any player previously in this game.
After the fastest player scores, the first player clockwise scores their word, and compares it to the fastest player. If that player scored more than the fastest player, they score a small bonus. If nobody ultimately scores more than the fastest player, he or she scores a small bonus. Either way, the current fastest player gets the No Flip card – they are not allowed to flip the timer in the next round.
For the next round, the last four cards (the ones worth 3 and 2 points) are discarded, the other cards are shifted into those spaces, and four new cards are put out. After 7 rounds, players adds the scores of their best 5 words, plus their bonuses. The player with the most points wins!
In games with three or more players, the player that flipped the timer receives a card showing they can’t do it in the next round, so you won’t always have the same player causing the timer to flip.
Thoughts from the Opinionated Gamers
Chris Wray: If you like Word games, I bet you’ll like Wordsy. This is a fun challenge that plays quick and is easy to teach. Wordsy takes the most fun part of games like Scrabble and condenses them to their core.
The clever twist here is that you don’t need to limit yourself just to the letters on display. You can — and will probably need to — use the other letters of the alphabet, particularly since there are no vowels in the deck. You’ll often need to get creative! Since everybody is trying to do the same thing, there’s little downtime. As I said, the game plays quick, with our plays taking 15-20 minutes.
That said, even though the game is timed, it doesn’t feel rushed. Thirty seconds feels like quite a long time when you’re playing, and in several plays, I haven’t seen anybody fail to find a word.
I initially expected players to frequently guess the same word, but in seven plays, I have yet to see that happen. Wordsy really opens the decisions up to creativity, and when we’re scoring words, people frequently call out, “Why didn’t I think of that!” or “Great word!” The English language, it turns out, is a very big decision space.
A good score for a word seems to be 20+ points, so that’s what I always aim for. But I’ve written down words with as few as 11 points. But if you have a rough turn, it isn’t a big deal, since you drop your lowest two words, a rule that keeps this close.
The cards are high-quality, and the game comes with a thick stack of player sheets and enough pencils for the maximum player count. The artwork is attractive, and overall, this is one of the better produced word games I’ve tried.
Overall, I love Wordsy, and I think this will have a spot on my shelf for a long time. I’ve already started steering my Scrabble-loving parents to this instead!
Dale Yu: I played this game a bunch with the original version in 2017-2018, and I was quite happy to see it get a second printing, now in the super compact Allplay box. This has always been one of my favorite word games – in part because there is generally no limit to the word that you can use. So, it’s fun to see people try to remember all the twelve letters and longer words in an attempt to score points! I’d add more, but Mr. Wray has pretty much said it all above!
This most recent version has nice dry-erase boards for recording the current word as well as keeping track of all your scores through the game. Though I no longer have the original version of the game, I don’t think there are any material changes to the rules. If you’ve never played this before, it’s a great word game for friends and family.
Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers
- I love it! Chris Wray, Dale Y, Steph, Simon W, Jim B
- I like it. Dan B.
- Neutral.
- Not for me…
Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4gCOSoC
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