Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
It ’s been a while since we ’ve seen an officially licensedScrabbleproduct for the Macintosh , so GameHouse ’s entry is welcome , specially for Mac word virtuoso who crave some challenge .
Scrabble’shistory fit back almost 70 years . The game is set on a hearty control board of 15 electric cell on a side . Each actor is given a circle of letter tiles from which to build words . on occasion , those words will overlap with roofing tile that will bring on you special points , either for the letter or the news . The actor with the highest score at the end of the biz winnings .
This new version of Scrabble — native to Mac OS X and a Universal Binary for Intel - based Macs — sticks to the basics , extend you the traditional circuit card game ( in a Classic mode ) playact either alone against the computer or another human role player , playing in “ red-hot seat ” mode ( taking turns on the same electronic computer ) . When you play against another human , the estimator pauses the game in between each turn so you do n’t see each other ’s tiles . There ’s no on-line game ingredient , unfortunately — so if you ’re home alone , the computer is the only opposer you ’ll find ( although there are different attainment level you may set the computer to , so there ’s always a challenge ) .
Tile PileThere ’s plenty of similarities between the young Mac edition of Scrabble and the classical board secret plan — which will suit Mac - using Scabble fans just ok .
There ’s also a time - based pep pill version — Blitz makes you run against the clock , force you to lie down words within a hardened issue of seconds ; Tournament mode , in which you play as long as potential within a set telephone number of minutes ; and Custom Tournament , which let you set time and word assistance options yourself .
Scrabble has some nice features to simplify biz play , like automatic pause if you snap in a window in another covering ( it blot out the tiles on the board so you ca n’t cheat in timed play ) and an automatonlike save feature of speech that saves the current biz in progress if you give up for any reason . There ’s also a confidential information feature ( it does n’t give it whole aside , just shows you the near area you’re able to make a discussion using your letters ) , as well as the officialMerriam - Webster Scrabble Player ’s Dictionarybuilt in .
There are a few legal effects — some musical accompaniments , the sound of tile being laid on the board — but nothing too showy or overpowering . And game options are on the austere remainder of simple — you may adjust sound effect loudness and choose to have the game in full CRT screen or windowed mode , and that ’s it .
you could also create several player , and since Scrabble track your procession , this is helpful if you ’d like to keep stats on more than just yourself , if you ’re on a computer that ’s occasionally shared . That ’s also used for high score tracking — alas , it ’s local to the computer only ( no global high score trailing ) .
Bottom line
At $ 20 , Scrabble from Gamehouse is a fine value for anyone who wants to relive the playfulness of Hasbro ’s Greco-Roman criss - cut across word add-in game on their Mac . There are a few defect , such as an absence of meshing play or score share-out , but those are venial exclusions .
