Review: Scrabble on the iPod

I was excited when I saw there would be a Scrabble game for the iPod. It works on the iPod 5th generation, the new iPod Nano and the iPod Classic. I have a 5th gen, so I bought it and downloaded.
The main problem with the game is the small screen. That and the lack of a true pointing device. Viewing the whole board on a tiny screen is too much a strain on the eyes. Scrabble is a game that really requires you to concentrate on the board, visualizing letter combinations. I can watch a movie on my iPod, but playing this game for 30 minutes is different.
Also, using the scroll wheel is difficult. Placing letters in a 2d board using a device that allows you to navigate in 1d takes a long time. It is too hard to try out letter combinations. You simply have to do so in your mind. But if you play Scrabble like I do, you are trying to create multiple words at once, by lying letters next to other letters and getting 3, 4 or even 5 words out of one turn.
What I am comparing the iPod game to is the Windows version of the game. They look similar, actually. I play the Windows game a lot. It is probably half of the reason I run Parallels on my Mac. The Windows version is so much fun to use. You can play against a variety of AIs, and quickly arrange and re-arrange letters on the board to try things out. Not only is it fun, but it has made me such a better Scrabble player.
There is a Mac version of Scrabble, too, released after I had bought the Windows one. I think if anything, this iPod version has encouraged me to download and buy the Mac game. But I doubt I’ll ever try to play the iPod version again.

Comments: One Response to “Review: Scrabble on the iPod”

    16 years ago

    Do they have it for the Touch or iPhone? That would be cool, on the larger screen.

    Plus, with WiFi and internet, they could make it social like Scrabulous. Scrabulous on an iPhone would be awesome...

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