Destructoid review: Word Soup

4:00 PM on 01.07.2009   |   Jim Sterling

20 comments

Puzzle games often challenge our ability to think quickly and work on our instincts, but funnily enough, they rarely challenge our intellect. Certainly, kicking arse at Tetris or Lumines takes skill, but not academic brainpower.

Enter Word Soup, a game designed to make you feel a bit stupid. 

Part Tetris, part wordsearch, Word Soup is an interesting puzzler that certainly has promise. If you are dying to know just how much potential, read on and find out.

Word Soup (Xbox 360 Community Games)
Developed by Fuzzy Bug
Released on December 17, 2008
Costs 400 MS Points
Read more about our Community Games Review Challenge  

The aim of Word Soup is to clear as many blocks from the screen as possible in one go. A bit like Tetris. However, in order to do this, you must find and highlight words by chaining together the letters found on each block. A bit like a wordsearch. It's easy to get the hang of, and surprisingly quite fun at the same time.

Letters can be joined together so long as the blocks are touching in some way, and a word will count if you can string together the letters sequentially. The blocks are broken into different colors, with a different score denoting their value, lending a Scrabble-like quality to the game, since the most difficult-to-use letters score higher. Once a word is made, the blocks are destroyed and you get an overall score for the word.

You have an option to reshuffle the blocks, should you not find any letters to your liking, and you also get a limited amount of help, allowing the computer to find words for you a certain number of times. 

There are a number of modes, although the core gameplay remains the same throughout. Timed Mode does exactly what you'd expect -- giving you a time limit to make as many words as possible. A Brain Game ups the challenge the more you keep playing, and a Relaxed Game simply lets you make words at your own leisure. 

Overall, the experience is fun and the game is well polished, but there are issues. One major problem is that the random nature of the block arrangement means that nearly every game will end with you feeling painted into a corner. While shuffling and the help button can get you moving, once it's down to the last few lines, players will invariably find themselves stuck with Y's and U's and other letters that don't play well together. 

Of course, it's difficult to end a game like Word Soup any other way. The chances of clearing the board are pretty slim, and unfortunately it means that every game ends with you feeling like you've surrendered. There's no real sense of accomplishment or reward, which is a shame because the game is rather entertaining while you're actually playing it. 

Overall, Word Soup is a solid experience. If you're after a quick puzzler that will actually get your brain working a little, then it's worth a quick peek. However, it may not prove addictive enough to get you fishing in your virtual wallet. Definitely give it a try and see if it sticks.

Score: 6.5 -- Alright (6s may be slightly above average or simply inoffensive. Fans of the genre should enjoy them a bit, but a fair few will be left unfulfilled.)