WordJong Party (Wii)

WordJong Party ought to prove good fun for word game lovers. The premise is simple, the infrared controls for selecting letters are intuitive, and, unlike many such games, there is potential for advanced wordsmiths to form satisfyingly sophisticated words up to ten letters in length. There's even a nice element of strategy, thanks to a smart scoring system and plenty of power-ups and attacks. Should you go for the longer, higher scoring words, or simply try to churn out a succession of short, low scoring words? When ought you to use your double-word-score power-up or wildcard letter? How long should you wait before unleashing sandstorms and tornadoes on your opponents' playing areas?

However, as entertaining as WordJong Party can be, it does have a couple of sticking points. The first is that the single-player campaign is far too easy for most word game junkies. Computer-controlled opponents are apt to create simple two- to four-letter words, making it feel like our competitors are third graders. While this is great for the younger crowd, older children and adults will likely grow bored quickly and end up gravitating to the more challenging daily puzzles, in which the goal is simply to achieve a high score by creating long and complex words, or the party mode where they can test their mettle against human opponents. But that leads to the second problem, which is that both party modes are geared for four players. Should you have just one or two friends with whom to play, the extra spot(s) will be filled by the same computer-controlled opponents faced in the single-player mode, and they'll spend much of their time aggravating you with random, stack altering attacks. These aren't deal-breaking issues, but they do put a damper on the overall experience.