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SCRABBLE Slam! DSiWare Review
RetroVertigo
May 8, 2010
Mobile gamers have a slew of excellent casual word puzzle games at their eager wordsmithing fingertips. PopCap Games' Bookworm and Words With Friends by Newtoy Inc., are just a couple of examples. Hasbro has tried to take advantage of the casual mobile gaming genre by taking SCRABBLE Slam!, the card game based on their SCRABBLE board game, to handheld devices. Recently, SCRABBLE Slam! saw its release on the Nintendo DSi by way of the Nintendo DSi Store.
The objective in SCRABBLE Slam! is simple. Each player has a bunch of cards with letters on them. Players must use their cards to replace letters of a preselected four letter word, to spell new words. The person who uses up all of their cards is the winner. Sounds like a fun, fast paced game, right?
Well... that depends on who you're playing with. If you're somebody like me who doesn't have any close friends who own a DSi, you're going to spend all of your time playing against 1-3 computer opponents. The computer can provide a good challenge, but because this is meant to be a social game, it quickly loses its appeal. If you have a friend, who also has a DSi, and who also spent the 500 Nintendo Points ($5 USD) to get SCRABBLE Slam!, then you might have a much more enjoyable time playing with them via local WiFi.
It's not that SCRABBLE Slam! is a bad game, it's just not a very fun word game to play on the DSi. Perhaps if SCRABBLE Slam!'s multiplayer went beyond local Wi-Fi gaming, where players could get matched up with others across the United States, this might be a much more enjoyable game. Playing against A.I.-controlled opponents seems pointless after awhile.
Let's put it this way: if you REALLY want to play the DSiWare version of SCRABBLE Slam! with friends, you're going to need four DSi's, four copies of the $5 downloadable game, and all four players will have to be in the same room. At this point, why not save yourself the time, effort, and all of the unnecessary expenditures and just pick up the actual SCRABBLE Slam! card game for a significant fraction of the cost at your favorite store? Technology is supposed to make things faster and less complicated, but in this situation, it doesn't.
If you want to earn some honest to goodness old-school gaming cred--I'm talking board game players here, folks--I recommend skipping the DSiWare version of SCRABBLE Slam! and going with the card game version instead.