Find A Word

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on March 01, 2012

Find A Word is a simple but challenging word game that's also a lot of fun to play. This jumble variant presents you with a list of random letters, including vowels, and you have to make as many words out of them as you can before your turn is up without using any proper names, contractions, abbreviations, or words not on the program's approved list. Turns can be 30, 60, or 90 seconds long.

Find A Word's interface is basic but designed very well for the job. It starts with Start Game and Start Turn buttons at the top, just below the menu bar. Two fields handle most of the action: The Letter Pot, which lists the random letters, and Your Word, in which you type in words. There's an Enter button, but it's much quicker to press the Enter key when you're playing. Aside from an End Game button, the only other features select the duration of the turn and count up results.

To play, you simply click Start Game and enter as many words as you can make out of the Letter Pot before your turn ends. Clicking the Start Turn button starts the game over and refreshes the Letter Pot. The game's options include turning the sound on and off and a Top Ten score ranking.

We clicked Start Game. Find A Word filled the Letter Pot and started counting down our turn from 60 (the default choice). We found the best way to play is to go for the quick three-letter words first, as many as you can, and then longer words. It's also helpful to try each vowel with each consonant, and don't forget vowel combinations. Not every Letter Pot is a trove of words: we got one with two qs and no u to go with them. Find A Word is the sort of word game that can become habit-forming, but it's the sort of habit that has benefits since this brain-teasing game can help keep you sharp as well as entertained.

 

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Publisher's Description

From Custom Solutions of Maryland:

Find A Word is a word game. There are five turns to a game and each turn lasts 30, 60 or 90 seconds, selectable by the user; a countdown is displayed to let you know when the end of the turn is near. When you click the "Start Game" button, you will see three vowels and five consonants in the Letter Pot field. Your goal is to make as many words as you can from these letters. Enter Your Word and click on the "Enter" button (or press the Return key). To be accepted, a word must be made from the Letter Pot letters, be included in the Find A Word dictionary (no proper names, contractions or abbreviations) and be unique (not used before in this turn). If you do not want to wait until the end of the turn, click the "Start Turn" button to continue through your five turns. The "End Game" button clears all words and scoring. You get ten points for each word plus one point for each letter in the word. If you find 30 words before the end of a turn, the turn ends and you get 200 bonus points plus a time bonus (1/10/100 points per unused second for 90/60/30 seconds per turn). At the end of five turns, your Total Score will be compared to the top ten scores. If your score is within the ten top scores, your name, score, number of turns that you received a bonus and your Time per Turn will be added to the High Scores table. The High Scores window can be accessed at any time from the menu bar. You can edit a name in the High Scores window by double-clicking a name, typing a new name, and pressing the "Enter" button.

What's new in this version:

• Version 2.0.1 uses an installer and is compatible with Win 7.

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