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Note: Some games may omit to mention all the game controls, so these are some common game controls, although not all games will use them.
F1 for help, F4 switch between a window and fullscreen, F5 saves game, F6 load a saved game, Esc exit the game.


Word Finder by Vihutuo.

The object of this game is very simple, you are given seven letters and must rearrange then into words of three letters or more. You get more points for longer words and bonus points for any seven letter words you form. The number of possible words is shown in a grid of empty boxes.

Graphic and sound effects are kept to a minimum, with just a few mouse over effects and the odd beep. The game area is very clean and easy on the eyes.

When playing the game, you either play against the clock, getting as many words as possible in three minutes, or you can take your time and try to find every possible word.
Entering your word is easy, just click on the letters and press the Submit button, you can deselect chosen letters by clicking on them. If your word is acceptable, it will be entered in the grid to the right.
A useful feature is the Shuffle button, this rearranges the letters and can often inspire you, if you are stuck for words.
The word lists are very good, all the words are in common use (no names, ie Paris), avoiding a common problem with this type of game, where lots of small obscure words are listed, like for example "ara".

The presentation is rather plain, but the help file is good and everything seemed to work well.
Note: If your desktop is at a lower resolution than 1024*768 you will need to increase it, or the game will not work correctly. Press F4 for fullscreen.

Overall a surprisingly addictive game, I played numerous timed games trying to get all the words in a letter combination, I never managed it, but my highscore is 268.
I would like to see the screen resolution problem fixed and when you run out of time and the remaining words are shown, it would be nice if they were in a different colour to the words you have already found.
But apart from those two points a great game for those of us who like word puzzles.

Freeware -- Download size 1.24Mb -- Win 98,ME,XP,NT4,2000
No install required, just unzip and run.

http://www.gamemakergames.com/?a=view&id=4765

Word Tub by Roy Lazarovich.

In Word Tub, you create words from the letters contained in bubbles rising from your bath tub. You must also protect your bath toys from floating away, or being sunk by a flaming bubble. When all your bath toys are gone the game is over.

There are very good graphic effects throughout the game, with most items on the screen having some animation. I did turn off the scrolling background effect (F10), as it was rather nausea inducing.
If you have an older computer and find the game lags, you can turn off most of the visual effects. I found that I preferred the games appearance, with the transparency off for the tub.

The background music was a perky little jingle and there were some good sound effects, although a few more sound effects during the game, wouldn't have gone amiss.
You do have the menu option to turn both the music and sound effects off during the game.

The best way to learn the game, is to read the quick start and then dive straight in, the basic aspects of the game are easy to pick up and you can check up on the more detailed descriptions of flaming bubbles etc, later.
I found that dragging the mouse pointer over letters to create words, worked very well, you could even go around obstructing letters, to a slight degree.
The dictionary content was comprehensive, I didn't have a single word "not found". It is quite difficult to think of long words with the clock ticking and three letter words produce more flaming bubbles, so should be avoided, so remember to always use a plural where possible.

In addition to the main game, there are also four mini games, hangman, unscramble, simon and one locked game. These games can either be played from the menu, or between each level. They are reasonable, but after a couple of games, I usually skipped them.

The game presentation is excellent, from the custom loading bar and title video, to the "down the drain" exit video.
Very easy to navigate menus and I liked how you could use Esc, to exit to the options during a game and the game state would be preserved.
The only negative, was the lack of an in-game help file, which would be useful when learning the game, although the supplied external help was excellent.
The option in the Windows menu to run the game either full screen or in a window, or with the video disabled, should please people with "problem" computers.

Overall a very well thought out and presented game, good gameplay, an interesting game and so many extra touches, it seems more like a team effort, than the work of one person.

Freeware -- Download size 8.4Mb

http://www.roylazarovich.co.nr/

Wordsmith By Steven (Tarkus) Mackaay.

If you like word puzzle games you will love Wordsmith, the idea of the game is quite simple, you find the longest words you can in the ten by ten grid of letter tiles and try to avoid filling the grid with red tiles, when you cant get any more words the game is over.

The words need to be three letters or more in length, constantly using short words is punished by the appearance of a red tile, as is refreshing the available letter tiles by pressing the new tiles button.
Your score for each word is decided by the value of each letter, as indicated by the number of red circles on the tile, each circle is worth 110 points.
Your score can be further increased by using the coloured tiles that appear from time to time. The appearance of the coloured tiles is linked to the quality of the words you pick, basically big words with Z's and X's are better!

The value of your chosen word is multiplied by 2, 3 or 5 depending on whether you have included a green, gold or platinum tile in your word.
The points for the chosen word are shown along with your total score and the number of points required to move to the next level, as you progress to higher levels the chances of getting red tiles increases, while it gets harder to earn coloured multiplying tiles and more rare letter tiles appear making it harder to form good words.

Playing the game is fairly straightforward, you select the letters with the left mouse button, you can move horizontally, vertically or diagonally to form your word and the game makes a different sound if you have a valid word, you then press enter to confirm your word, this is one area that perhaps could be improved in the game, it would be nice to double click with the mouse rather than press enter. You can clear your word by right clicking with the mouse or left clicking on a selected letter will deselect it.
The blue sidebars on the grid can be used to alter the direction that the letters fall to enable the highly intelligent amongst us ( Not me, I'm in the forty watt brigade.) to set up new words.
Probably the most important strategy when playing the game is to get rid of the red squares as quickly as possible, as every three turns they multiply and things can very quickly get out of hand, once you have more than three red squares spread out on the grid you are in big trouble!

The game has a nice clean interface with subdued colours so that you can play for long periods without eyestrain, all the usual controls are present allowing you to save and load your game, an off switch for the sound effects would have been nice as I like to play CD's when I'm solving puzzles. (It helps me think.)
The help file is excellent and explains the game rules very clearly and is accessible during the game, which is always very useful.

The game has a dictionary of about 60,000 words so it should be rare for you to find a word that is missing, certainly I haven't discovered one yet.
All round one of the best puzzle games created with GM so far, with a lot of repeat playing appeal, definitely a game that I will keep on my hard drive and at only 1.3Mb a small download as well.

Freeware -- Download size 1.3Mb -- Win 98,ME,XP,NT4,2000

http://www3.telus.net/tarkus/

Guess by Waitwill.

Guess is a fast moving puzzle game where you have to guess a five letter word in seven tries or less. To add to the pressure, you only have twenty seconds per guess.
You are given the first letter of the word and if you guess any letters correctly, they are circled in yellow, if the position of the letter is also correct, it is highlighted in red.
If you don't manage to correctly guess the word in seven tries, you lose one of your three lives.

The game graphics are not very modern looking, but they do the job well enough and lets face it, who notices game graphics after the first five minutes, if the game play is good.
The sound effects are quite muted and are just enough to let you know when you lose another guess.

Providing that you are at least a competent one finger typist, you should have no problem with controlling the game, although not having a limit to the number of letters you could enter, was a little irritating at times, as in my haste I kept trying to use six letter words by mistake. The game really needs a warning tone if five letters have already been entered.

You need a fairly wide vocabulary to play the game well, although as you progress it does become easier, because you become familiar with good starting words for each letter, preferably a word with plenty of vowels.
The game does move a bit too fast at times, you hardly have time to see the messages that appear, before you are presented with the next game, but this does make the game more addictive.

The game is presented well, with a custom icon, loading bar, help file and high score table. Mouse over effects are used on the buttons and the menus are intuative.
In summary, Guess is a good game for word puzzlers, challenging, with rather frantic game play, if you prefer a more sedate puzzle, try Thimk, by the same author. Thimk is essentially the same game as Guess, but with no time limit, more tries and less clues.

Freeware -- Download size 2.1Mb -- Win 98,ME,XP,NT4,2000
No install required, just unzip and run.

http://waitwill.com/games.html

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