The App Store is filled with a bunch of word games, but in this post, I’ll talk about seven of my favorite word games for the iPhone.

Word Spin

Word Spin is based on an actual game by Geospace Products Co., Inc. In Word Spin, you start with three dials containing ten letters each. You start off by spinning them and rearranging them to try to get the best layout. When you’re done with that, you move on to the scoring phase where you must find words (horizontally) on the dials. Different letters are worth different amounts of points, a la Scrabble, and incorrect words count against you. After your scoring round is done, a fourth dial is added and you repeat the process all over again. In all, there are six rounds, the final round using eight dials.

Not only is Word Spin fun, but the interface looks great too. It’s nice and simple and doesn’t distract you from the game.

Current Status: Highly Recommended

Reviewed at: v1.0
Reviewed on Firmware: 3.1.2
Download size: 6.3MB
Released on: October 26, 2009
Retails for: $1.99
Compatible with: iPhone and iPod Touch running OS 3.0 or later

WordFu

You’ve probably heard of WordFu before, but in case you haven’t, WordFu is a mixture between a word and dice game. The concept is almost the same as Word Spin, but the way it’s presented and the extra little features makes it something entirely different. You start by shaking your iPhone to shake a bunch of dice with letters on them. You can then flick individual dice to get just the letters you want. When time runs out, you have to create words from the visible dice. You have to work fast, though, you’ve got a fairly short time limit; however, there are special “power-ups” that can help you. One freezes time, one doubles your score, and one lets you flick one of the dice.

Current Status: Recommended

Reviewed at: v1.0.1 (Plus+ version)
Reviewed on Firmware: 3.1.2
Download size: 20.1MB
Released on: October 17, 2009
Retails for: $0.99 / Free
Compatible with: iPhone and iPod Touch running OS 2.2.1 or later

Scrabble

You can’t go wrong with a classic game like Scrabble. If you’re one of the few people who don’t know anything about Scrabble, it’s a crossword-like game where you must spell words on a board using your hand of seven letters. Each letter is worth a certain amount of points and the grid on the playing field contains various multipliers to increase your score.

Scrabble’s interface is sub-par for me; it definitely doesn’t feel much like an iPhone application. The menus feel bloated and are somewhat cluttered. Starting a quick one-player game can be a chore and the multiplayer page feels like it’s overcrowded with options. Despite all of these nuances, Scrabble is Scrabble: fun. My only real gripes are the Best Word and Teacher features. They might as well rename them ‘Cheat.’

Current Status: Highly Recommended

Reviewed at: v1.2.98
Reviewed on Firmware: 3.1.2
Download size: 9.5MB
Released on: September 25, 2009
Retails for: $4.99
Compatible with: iPhone and iPod Touch running OS 2.2 or later

Words With Friends

Words With Friends is a free Scrabble almost-clone (it also has a paid, ad-free version). The reason I say almost is because it does have some features that are different from Scrabble. The most obvious of these is the fact that the multipliers (double letter, triple word, etc.) are in totally different places. This is nice, especially after playing Scrabble; it makes you think a little differently to score more points.

What makes Words With Friends cool is the multiplayer aspect (which, if you’re not going to play multiplayer, it’s not worth getting). The game will pair you up with another WWF player and you’ll be able to play against them in real time (or not; push notifications will let you know when it’s your turn). Scrabble has multiplayer, but it’s through Facebook and only lets you play against Facebook friends. All in all, Words With Friends is a really great free game (of course, you can get the paid version when those ads start getting annoying).

Current Status: Highly Recommended

Reviewed at: v3.05 (paid version)
Reviewed on Firmware: 3.1.2
Download size: 2.7MB
Released on: November 1, 2009
Retails for: $2.99 / Free
Compatible with: iPhone and iPod Touch running OS 2.2.1 or later

Imangi

Imangi is an interesting little game. A mix between a Rubik’s Cube and a crossword game, Imangi will have you entertained for quite a while. The concept is simple: create as many words as you can using letters on a 6×8 grid.

The catch is, however, that you need to move the letters around to score as many points as you can. You can either move the rows horizontally or the columns vertically. To find words, you just have to tap the letters; when you’re done, tap submit and your score will be tallied.

Current Status: Recommended
Reviewed at: v2.0.4
Reviewed on Firmware: 3.1.2
Download size: 4.0MB
Released on: January 9, 2009
Retails for: $1.99
Compatible with: iPhone and iPod Touch running OS 2.0 or later

Lexic

Your goal in Lexic is find as many words as you can before time runs out. You start out with a grid of letters and two minutes on the clock. Just slide your finger across the letters to form words and score some points. When the word you formed disappears, more letters fall in from the top and you keep playing until time runs out. Lexic also has a mode where new letters don’t drop in and your task is to remove them all and a mode where the letters don’t disappear and you must find as many words as you can.

What really makes Lexic fun is its system of unlockables. Like an achievement system, by accomplishing different feats, you can unlock various interface changes, from different styles of letter tiles, to different colored frames, to special abilities that will help you in the game.

Current Status: Highly Recommended
Reviewed at: v2.0
Reviewed on Firmware: 3.1.2
Download size: 8.0MB
Released on: October 7, 2009
Retails for: $1.99
Compatible with: iPhone and iPod Touch running OS 2.2.1 or later

Textropolis

Last but not least, we’ve got Textropolis. In Textropolis, you go to various cities (all containing nine letter) where your challenge is to find as many words as you can in that city’s name. Finding enough words in one city will unlock the next. Each word you find will bring more people to the city while asking for a hint will make some leave.

Textropolis is guaranteed to keep you busy for quite a while. With 30 cities and about 100 or so words per city, it’s not a game that you’ll beat in one sitting.

Current Status: Highly Recommended
Reviewed at: v1.3.1
Reviewed on Firmware: 3.1.2
Download size: 1.3MB
Released on: July 9, 2009
Retails for: $1.99
Compatible with: iPhone and iPod Touch running OS 2.2 or later

If there’s one thing that the App Store isn’t overflowing with, it’s good golf games. Sure, you’ve got Tiger Woods, various minigolf games, and my personal favorite, Let’s Golf, but Fore is something different.

Fore is a top-down golf (not mini golf) game with simple controls, pretty good physics, cool animations, and excellent graphics. The controls couldn’t be any simpler; if they were, you’d be playing this game with sheer mind power. Looking down at the tee, you see your ball with two circles around it. Just place your finger on it, pull back, and slide it forward to swing (a la Ramp Champ or Skee-Ball). The faster you swing, the further the ball flies. Even though the game is two-dimensional, you can use a 2 iron to get your ball under the trees: a cool little feature that shows how much thought was put into this game. But it’s graphics were what initially drew me to this game. The almost-cartoony courses look awesome on the iPhone and really adds to the game.

As simple as this game is, it’s one that will remain on or near my home screen as it’s great to pick up and play. If you like games that you can get drawn into for hours, this may not be the one, but if you’re a casual gamer, give Fore a shot; three holes took me about seven minutes total. Fore also has two two-player modes: pass-and-play and peer-to-peer. I haven’t tried either just yet, but I can imagine it being pretty fun, especially playing on two devices. Finally, if Fore didn’t have enough replay value as it is, Fore is a part of the Plus+ network, so you can unlock achievements as well!

Overall? .. Get it. It’s only a few dollars and should keep you entertained for a while.

Current Status: Highly Recommended

Reviewed at: v1.0
Reviewed on Firmware: 3.1.2
Download size: 219.0MB
Released on: November 1, 2009
Retails for: $3.99
Compatible with: iPod touch or iPhone running 2.0 or later

Allow me to set the scene: you’re browsing the App Store and you see this great new app that you just have to have. You sit there, thinking about it for a second and realize that it’s totally worth the $3.99 (or however much it happens to be). Purchased.

Tomorrow comes around. That game you just bought? It’s free now.

If you’ve found that that happens to you pretty often, BargainBin might be just the application you need. In short, BargainBin lets you set up a watch list and notifies you when an application drops in price.

The Application

Upon opening BargainBin, you are greeted with a brief explanation of how to use it. Once you get past that, you are taken to your Watch List. By tapping the plus button, you can add any application from the App Store to it, set the price you want to pay, and you’re done. When that application reaches your target price, you get a nice little push notification letting you know about the price drop.

BargainBin is also great for finding those diamonds in the rough. BargainBin can be configured to notify you when popular (or even any) applications drop in price. You can even browse BargainBin just like the App Store with the ability to browse by category, read descriptions, view screenshots, see price drops, and purchase the application (by linking you to the App Store).

As far as BargainBin’s interface goes, it actually looks pretty nice. Everything is right where you’d expect it to be and nothing is overly complicated.

The whole concept behind BargainBin is saving you money, so what better way than to make BargainBin completely free? That’s right, BargainBin won’t cost you a penny and it doesn’t look like the developers plan on changing that; so pick it up and start saving yourself some money.

Current Status: Highly Recommended

Reviewed at: v3.0.1
Reviewed on Firmware: 3.0
Download size: 2.0MB
Released on: 5th Aug 2009
Retails for: Free

Compatible with: iPod touch Gen 1 & 2 / iPhone Classic / iPhone 3G / iPhone 3GS