Syllablade

WORDS ARE MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD. Free with IAP | naquatic.com/syllablade

BONEGHOST THE TERRIBLE is going down! One hit to the face with ‘revamp’ and he’s met his second death, for this is Syllablade, a mobile game that’s all about words... and violence against undead monsters.

You start off with a little warrior and a sword, facing a skeleton. The bottom half of the screen is taken up by a 4 x 4 board of jumbled letters which you must use to create the longest words you can. Like Scrabble, each letter has a certain weight, so ‘rare’ will not be as powerful a word as ‘jazz’, for example.

You get an unlimited amount of time for your go, so take as long as you need to think up the right words. Once you select a word, your little warrior will charge forward and hack at your opponent, chiselling down its health bar and earning you gold, which you can use to upgrade your gear and weapons. Unlocking items is definitely worthwhile, as spending the coin gives you a permanent boost to attack or health, regardless of whether you’re actually wearing that item. Plus, enemy attacks get more powerful as you progress.

If you create a word that has five or more letters, your ‘bonus tile’ meter begins to fill up, encouraging you to think up more complex words. There are levels, consisting of varying numbers of foes, and those levels combine into worlds, such as the graveyard or forest zones, where you will meet new enemies. Once you’ve filled up your bonus tile meter, a skull and crossbones bonus tiles appears on the board. You can use this tile to increase your letter count, and using it also initiates a longlasting effect attack on your enemies, continually working down their health bars. The effect hangs around after one enemy dies, too.

There are opportunities to replay levels if you want to grind your way to upgrades, although your gold earnings will be reduced. You can also pay real money to upgrade your gear and get more gems (which give you health bumps, spells and so on). However, if you enjoy word games like this, the RPG elements make replaying levels less of an annoying grind and more of an actual brain challenge.