Manchester United: Word It

Manchester United: Word It

, Nov 11, 2008 1728 hrs IST

Simple gameplay will keep you hooked

Fun to play, Well presented, Good amount of levels and unlockables, Challenging.

Low replay value.

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Expert Review

If you are a football fan, this is a good time for
you. We bare witness to some really cool matches (Liverpool beating
Chelsea at Stamford Bridge), and some uber-slick goals
(Berbatov/Ronaldo against West Ham 'nuff said). Others want to join in
and make the most out of this football season and hence we see a string
of events, merchandise as well as games based on Football. We recently
covered FIFA 09 and came back very impressed, this around we check out
a different game, one that is more mental than physical. The game is
called "Manchester United Word It" and as you may have guessed, it's a
word based game.

Word It is a simple game, the design and gameplay clearly focus
around casual gameplay. Most cell phones games that I have played are
short and simple, ideal for passing time while traveling. Jump Games
the developers of Word It have taken that factor into consideration and
made Word It, easy to get in and get out. As the screenshots will tell
you the core gameplay revolves around locating words from an alphabet
grid. These are words related to Manchester United like player names
and basic football terms.

There are 5 different levels or modes called Training Ground, Player's
Lounge, Changing Room, Player's Tunnel and The Pitch, each of these
modes have up to 15 puzzles which need to be complete within a set time
frame. The words to be located appear in a ticker on the bottom of the
screen, in case you don't have patience to sit and wait for the missing
words to appear, you can always access the list of words. The words
have to be located on the grid and they can be present horizontally,
vertically or diagonally. The puzzles get harder at later levels but
what's the point of a game that doesn't pose a challenge. The limited
time frame can add some pressure when looking for more challenging
words but its good fun and would make most Manchester United fans
happy. Coming back to the Manchester Branding, this game is one of many
to come via Jump Games. A few months back Jump Games signed a deal with
Manchester United to exclusively to develop and publish games for the
club, so expect many more from them. FYI: Jump Games is a part of
Reliance Big Entertainment.

The game is good fun to play and since it is word based, almost
anybody can play the game. The first two levels are a breeze, but later
on it takes a few tries to win. As you play the game you will unlock
many goodies like caps and t-shirts belonging to the club, its a neat
touch, although not very compelling. You can exit the game in an
instant and join back anytime, continuing from where you left off. The
game also records all your stats and tells you exactly how good or bad
you are.

Simply put the gameplay is fun, but you won't find yourself
finishing this off in one sitting, this is something that you will play
for a while and then come back again later. I have had my share of
mobile gaming (not the kind you play on the PSP or DS) and I have to
say this is one of the few games that I didn't stop playing after the
first 10 min.

Although the game's menu music is so horrible Dwight Schrute
wouldn't be caught listing to it. The game isn't without it's flaws, I
believe they could have added a more rich interface, the transitions
got boring very soon, I would have liked to see player photographs or
other football related pics instead of a boring fade-in/fade-out
effect. This is a game that a football lover should try, its fun, its
simple and its not a bad way to kill some time.

The game is available across all major GSM and CDMA operators in
the country. Currently, the game is priced at Rs 50-100 for one-time
download and Rs. 10 for a pay-per-play session on various operators.
Going forward, the game will also be available for Blackberry and other
smartphones.