In love with word games? Here are the best ones to play with friends

Word games are very popular – not surprisingly. Usually they are easy to use, there’s no need to learn complex or difficult rules, they need just the right amount of brain work – neither overly complicated nor dumb and pointless. All in all: they provide a perfect entertaining activity while travelling on public transport or sitting on boring classes or at waiting times. What we love even more, are games that we can play together with friends: meet the best word games that allows to share the pleasure with your mates.

Words with Friends

Words with Friends is very similar to the well-known table game, Scrabble. The rules are basically the same – even the double; triple letter; word points are there – with the huge difference that this one is played from the distance. The players don’t need to meet in person to sit down and play through the whole game at one time. One of them starts with putting a word in the center of the virtual table and the other has a certain amount of time – as a reply – to put the next one. This can happen from bed in the morning, at lunch brake at work, or even between two cocktails at night. Independent from time, independent from place. A built-in dictionary defines what words can be used. Words with Friends is available now in 6 different languages and hopefully more and more will be developed and added. The only drawback is the huge amount of advertisements in the free version which can be eliminated for 9.99 USD.

Hanging with Friends

“Double word score.” “Triple letter score.” If you’re a word-game fan, these phrases probably sound like music to your ears. First introduced in the classic board game Scrabble, they continued to delight fans as part of the Zynga game Words With Friends in the modern platforms of iOS, Android and Facebook. Zynga delivers another mobile word game — Hanging With Friends — a twist on the old pencil-and-paper Hangman. For a brief challenge matches against friends, family or a stranger, Hanging With Friends is one of the best word game yet.

Just like the timeless Hangman, you must construct a word to challenge a partner. In this app, you’re given a small group of letter tiles with which to work, and the word you create needs a minimum of four letters and a maximum of eight. Randomly dropped into the eight blank spaces will be a bonus letter or word score multiplier just like in Scrabble. If the word you construct reaches the right length you’ll get the bonus.

The real fun comes from the interaction with your opponents. The app adds a cool graphic of two avatars clutching balloons, floating above a pool of lava. Each time a player fails to guess a word in the allotted number of strikes, one of the balloons pops and the character drops closer to the molten lake. Three “lifelines” provide hints if you run into trouble.

The app provides several modes of play — pick your own friends from Facebook or your contacts, let the game select a random player online, or Pass and Play with someone close by. For online opponents, a chat feature lets you converse as you play, and it works across the iOS, Android and Facebook platforms. All in all, it’s a great game for mobile situations. Each turn is short, but will make you think and will definitely exercise your vocabulary. The game lets you play up to 20 matches simultaneously, and will alert you when your turn comes around.

WordStreak

Launched by the same video game developer, Zynga, WordStreak is for those who prefer classical word games. The aim is to find as many words in the 4×4 grid as possible and the user gets points depending on the length of each word. Connecting it with a Facebook account it is another fun way to challenge friends who are also enthusiastic word hunters.

WordFeud

WordFeud is a multiplayer Scrabble-like game, with a muted design that’s easy to read. You can run as many simultaneous games as you can handle, so there’s always a game awaiting your move. The game’s got plenty of options, for dictionaries, push notifications and board types. Lose the ads for about $3.00.

Wordsmith

Wordsmith is an intimate multiplayer game, supporting up to four players on a board. Play friends or strike up a random game. Keep gameplay flowing by running multiple games. Wordsmith keeps close tabs on game stats. Chat with players and view their profiles. The free version will suffice for most players, but for about $2.50 you get 60 simultaneous games and additional game stats.

Heads Up!

This one is great for team building. Big difference from the previous ones that Heads up! requires the presence of the players in a certain time at a certain place. It is based on the idea of the game „Who am I?”, mostly used as an ice breaker in newly formed groups. The player gets a character and has to hold the phone at his forehead so only the other players get to see who or what he is. There are more categories: the character can be a superstar, an animal or even an accent. The teammates are giving hints and the player has to guess his temporary personality. The surface is excellent: the app detects if the phone is held up already and shows the name of the character only after that. Also, if the player puts down the phone it hides the name automatically. What makes it even more fun is the front-face camera capturing every silly act your friends make to help you make a guess – this app is really using all possibilities a smartphone can provide! And having Ellen as the inventor and face of the game is just the icing on the cake!

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