AnaCraze, by Gabriel
Software, $19.95
Reviewed August 2002
From the name of the game, you probably
guessed this is an anagram type of game. Developed by Gabriel
Software, AnaCraze puts this popular game into the palm of
your hand and can go wherever you go.
In AnaCraze, you get 6 letters and you
need to come up as many three, four, five and six letter
words as possible, from a given six-root letters. Every time
you use up any of the six letters, you will get refill letters
that insure you have the same 6 letters at all times. There
is a window that shows the number of potential words and
the word that you came up with that were accepted by game’s
dictionary. The words in this window are separated by number
of letters, so you can easily see what you have and how many
words in certain number of letters are still missing at one
quick glance.
This Basic Edition of AnaCraze contains
a dictionary of 1000 unique 6 letter English words, plus
all the words that are derivable from them. You will likely
not get every single word if you are at my level. Don’t
forget the derivable words, which I missed the most. There
is a Mix button along with Enter and Clear buttons that will
help you see words by reposition all the letters. If you
entered letters by mistake, just click on the Clear button.
There is a time factor in this game to
challenge those who are sharp at finding words. Higher levels
of difficulty have shorter time periods to solve the words
and will get higher point scores for each solved word. You
can, however, cheat by pressing the pause button while finding
the words and only use up the clock to enter your word. Luckily,
you aren't required to score very high in order to advance
to the next set of letters.
It was surprising fun for me since
I'm not a huge word game fan. The easy to use interface
and simple game play concept make this game very easy to
pick up and keep playing.
Playing Hints and Tips
You can pause the clock when thinking
about the words, and use the clock to enter them. Mix the
letters when you are stuck. It will help you to see them
in a different way. |
