ruzzle_504265646_01.jpgIf you’ve played Zynga’s Scramble with Friends, feel free to skip over Ruzzle. It’s exactly the same game, albeit with slightly less marketability. If you’re still reading, I’m assuming you’re unacquainted with Scramble with Friends, and thus Ruzzle, so here are the basics.

Ruzzle is a social word puzzler. What that means is you compete with other players online to find as many words as you can on a fixed game board. The letters remain the same through each of the rounds as a timer ticks away. You then have to touch starting letters and drag your finger across other characters to form words. The points per word are determined by the point value of individual letters, and as you’ve probably guessed, the longer the word, the more points. You play your opponents in three rounds, and at the end of the three rounds, each of your total points are added up. The player with the highest score gets bragging rights.

ruzzle_504265646_02.jpgThe way the social features work will be nothing shocking to people who’ve played Zynga’s “With Friends” series, but I’m again assuming that you’re not familiar with the other similar games . You can play a game session with either your Facebook friends, Twitter followers, or Ruzzle friends. If all else fails, you can just have the game search for a random opponent. In essence, each of the three rounds in a game consist of a turn each (one for you, one for your opponent). Ruzzle again takes its cues from Zynga, allowing each player to take a turn at their leisure.

What’s nice about this is that you don’t need to worry about having to leave in the middle of a game, because you can take breaks, even hour-long ones, in between rounds. What’s irritating about it is that if you are looking for a quick, full game, you’ll have to rely on your opponent wrapping up his rounds as quickly as you play yours. The waiting for your opponent(s) to play can be boring, but this is really a problem with the genre, and not specifically with Ruzzle.

That’s not to say Ruzzle doesn’t have its own problems. The ads (video or image) that occasionally pop up between sessions are irritating, also, some of the nice features, (like being able to view leaderboards, offline practice mode, and the ability to see all the possible words you missed after each round) are all locked up by an in-app-purchase.

In Conclusion

If you’re into word games, you’ll probably want to check out Scramble with Friends. If you don’t like little things about that game, THEN download Ruzzle.