Parents' Guide to

Word Villas

By Erin Brereton, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 8+

Fun puzzler limited by simple words, lots of ads.

Word Villas Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this app.

Community Reviews

age 10+

Based on 1 parent review

age 10+

Needs some work

The game is fun although there are far too many ads. My concern, however, is the cultural stereotyping of the characters. The gardner is Hispanic and the adopted child is Asian. The Caucasian characters, on the other hand, live in a mansion, another is an architect, etc. This needs to addressed.

Privacy Rating Warning

  • Unclear whether personal information is sold or rented to third parties.
  • Personal information is shared for third-party marketing.
  • Personalised advertising is displayed.
  • Data are collected by third-parties for their own purposes.
  • Unclear whether this product uses a user's information to track and target advertisements on other third-party websites or services.
  • Unclear whether this product creates and uses data profiles for personalised advertisements.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: (1 ):
Kids say: Not yet rated

While this app can be somewhat interesting with its attempt at including a story around its puzzles, the frequent ads and repetitive terms keep it from standing out. Word Villas is a unique take on crosswords. In a traditional crossword, players would use brief descriptions to determine which words fit in various spaces. But in this app, players enter words they've formed from several letters that are provided. The main objective in completing puzzles is to earn stars, which they need to complete the main character's home remodeling-related and other tasks. She may, for example, realize she needs a new couch, and checking that off her to-do list costs a star. If players haven't banked a bunch by playing consecutive word puzzle rounds, they'll need to earn some before the storyline can advance.

Although the puzzles get somewhat more challenging as you reach higher levels, if players get stuck, they can buy a letter clue, provided they have enough coins, or shuffle the order the letters are shown in for free, which may help inspire additional guesses. Generally, though, the words aren't overly complex. The choices used in some rounds could actually be a bit more creative -- seeing meat and meaty in one puzzle doesn't feel all that challenging, and words sometimes are repeated in later rounds. The character's tasks tend to be doled out one at a time, and since the puzzle rounds typically don't take too long to finish, things move at a decent pace -- until players start seeing ads after rounds a few levels in. The increased ad frequency really puts a damper on the fun at a point when you should be getting into the groove of playing. Users can pay $1.99 to remove them, although some parents may prefer kids use the app without incurring the expense. By contrast, kids may eventually get tired of having to wait to collect their earnings from each round to move on to the next step.

App Details

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

See how we rate