Letris Power Brings Fancy New Power-Ups To The Word-Tetris Hybrid Game
Letris Power: Word puzzle game (Free) by Ivanovich Games is a game that combines word games with Tetris. If you’re a fan of any kind of word game, then you will definitely want to check this one out.
I'm definitely a sucker for word games. Even though I may not be the best at them (as evident by most of my Words With Friends and Scramble With Friends games), I have to admit they can be pretty addictive. And that's exactly what I get with Letris Power.
The basis of Letris is simple – letter blocks will continuously fall from the top of the screen (you can swipe down or press the down arrow to make the block drop immediately), and you need to make words from the blocks that are available. There’s no restrictions on what blocks you can make the words from (such as Boggle, where you have to create words from letters that are adjacent to each other) – just tap on letters in any order you want. Tapped letters will appear red, at least until you make a legit word, where it will turn green. To submit the word, tap it at the bottom of the screen.
The new feature of Letris Power is the addition of power-up blocks. There are three to be collected and used: Fire, Ice, and Time. Fire will clear the bottom row of letters, which can be extremely useful if you use a few at once to clear out several lines when it’s building up. Ice will freeze the game briefly – once you make your next word, it will automatically resume. And finally, Time will slow the falling blocks down so you have more time to think of words to spell.
I found it best to stockpile the power-ups and use it when it was absolutely necessary, otherwise you will end up not having anything in a critical game moment.
The game also features missions for each new game that you start – these will always be different, and it definitely adds a goal that you should strive to accomplish in each game. These missions will be stuff like “spell a seven-letter word,” “use four power-ups,” and more. It adds some nice variety to the game to keep it fresh each time.
Now, what’s a word game without some multiplayer action? Fortunately, Letris features two ways for multiplayer: online via Game Center or by a shared screen on the iPad. There are two game modes for multiplayer: Duel and Endurance. With Duel, you get to see the letters of words that your opponent types out in real time – the fastest will win the game. Endurance has both players competing with the same individual letters – whoever outlasts the other wins. It’s pretty fun to have different modes of play in multiplayer, as it keeps the game fresh.
Letris Power is a universal app, and it features iCloud sync so that your games are in tact on multiple devices. The Game Center integration works for online play, but you also get 57 achievements and 11 leaderboards to compete on.
The only problem I had with the game is the fact that I have to move my finger to the bottom of the screen each time to submit a word. I wish that it was possible to just double tap on the last letter to submit it.
Despite these little nitpicks, I found the game to be a delight to play. It’s really nice to not have to worry about spelling words with only blocks that are adjacent to each other. The graphics are also pretty good for a word game, and even though the game is free and supported by ads, I’m glad that the ads are not intrusive while you play.
Letris Power is a free download for your iPhone and iPad, so make sure to give it a try today! Look for me on Game Center if you want to play a game (username: christyxcore).
