This review takes a look at three different games.

Pathwords

Scrabble

Word Twist

These games are all mini games that involve creating words from jumbles. This review hopes to take a look at each, explain how each is played, and then give a quick judgement on the games. The judgements will be broken into three categories, Addictiveness, Level of Fun, and Amount of Time.

Addictiveness will take a look at how much the player wants to play the game again, after they have just finished.

Level of Fun will take a look at how much the player actually enjoys the game.

The Amount of Time category will take a look at whether or not the player has enough time to play the game to the full extent, or has too much time, and is waiting.

The object of Path Words is to click on each letter within the jumble, to form words and score as many points as possible. A user can click any letter that is touching the "active" letter, and cannot use the same letter twice. Once a player creates a word and submits it, (either by clicking on the last letter again, or clicking submit) the word disappears, and the letters tumble down. The longer the word, the more points a user scores.

Tips:

• Start low, and with bigger words.

• When you have a complete word, check letters around the word for endings such as S, or ER, or ING. Adding just one letter to a word can help out a lot when it comes to points.

• Three letter words are often make up much larger words. Don't settle for small words, if you know you can get a bigger one.

• The letters fall down. This makes it possible to get letters you need to fall into place. Advanced users will identify parts of words, and then "work" to get those to fall into place.

• Keep in mind that using shorter words with key letters such as e and r's can really kill your score. Save those for the larger words if possible.

• If you are not sure if something is a word, just submit it anyway. You don't lose points for non-words.

• If you are stuck with all kap's and other non-sensical words, and you have over a minute left in time, don't hesitate to shuffle the board. This is a great way to score an extra hundred points.

Path Words Addictiveness Score: 10

Path Words is tremendously addictive. I want to play it, even when I am exhausted and have no hope of beating my best score. It is like popcorn in a movie theater, you can't just have a little.

Level of Fun: 9

Path Words is really fun. Kind of frustrating in the beginning, but once you get the hang of it, its great. Your brain just looks at the letters, and makes up words. Then you find yourself frustrated when the game doesn't think its a word. COMON "RIRA" IS NOT A WORD! It gets is pretty funny.

Path Words Amount of Time Score: 7

Path Words has a five minute timer. The only problem is that it goes so fast, you feel as if you just started when time is up. An adjustable amount of time for the game would be a great addition to Path Words.

Path Words Total Score: 8.67

Path Words is a blast. I would say one of the better mini-games that this reviewer has ever played. A bit more customization, and this game would be perfect. You can try it out by going to Facebook.com and typing Pathwords. Have fun!

Playing Scrabble is like a version of the board game, except its not. Actually, the only things about Scrabble on Facebook that resemble the board game, are the name, and the color of the tiles.

Instead of having a bunch of letters in your tray, and laying them down on a board and building words out of them, you simply use the word jumble to find words. You can move in any direction, and you cannot use the same letter twice. The longer the word, again, the more points you score. A three letter word scores one point while a four letter is two, etc. So, it is better to get longer words.

Scrabble comes with three different ways to play. You can play solo, like the picture above, play live, against anyone who wants to play the room game, or play against your friends. I prefer to play solo, just because I have a harder time concentrating if I know I am directly competing with someone else. Also, in the few times I have played live, I lose horribly, and the second round doesn't seem to load. About half way through, my words stop counting. I can't prove whether this is a problem with my connection, or the game it's self, so that will not play a role in the judgment of this game. Playing with a friend is a fun thing to do, but again, its not much different than playing solo, since your best scores and your friends best scores are already logged in the system.

Hints

• Longer words are better than shorter words. You can score many more points if you play smarter rather than harder.

• Clicking on the shorter words doesn't take the letters away however, so if you can't see any long words, click the shorter ones in the meantime.

• You do not get punished for clicking on words that don't exist. If it looks like it might be a word, try it. You might just get lucky.

• If you cannot find anymore words, click spacebar, or the lower link on the board to rotate it. Often this will show you words you couldn't see from the previous angle.

• When you have complete a word, click on the last letter twice to submit. This will save you time rather than clicking on the enter button.

Scrabble Addictiveness Score: 8

Scrabble is semi-addictive, when the player gets done, there is always the pressure to play again, and see if they can beat their high score. Since it displays your high score, and your friends, it also encourages you to try and catch up to them as well.

Scrabble Level of Fun Score: 9

Scrabble is fun, if you like brain teasing games. After a few times of playing, your skills become much more honed, and it only succeeds in becoming more fun. The better you are at a game, often correlates to how much fun you are having. Also the fact that there are several ways to play, keeps this game from getting boring.

Scrabble Amount of Time: 10

Scrabble's three minute time limit for the rounds is actually a great time limit. It allows just enough time see the entire board, and also to grab all the words you can.

Scrabble Total Score: 9

Scrabble is a blast. The three different modes really makes this game a winner. With just the right amount of time to play, it keeps this game from trying to take over your life, and still allows you a quick break.

If you are looking for a quick distraction, Scrabble can be found on Facebook, just search Scrabble. It is made by Zynga. Have fun!

Word Twist is played by taking the letters that the computer gives you, and coming up with as many different combinations as possible. You do not have to use all the letters, and again the more letters you use, the more points the word is worth. A cool feature of Word Twist is that the computer generates boxes, and lets you know how many different combinations of the letters are left. The object of the game is to score as many points as possible, and the maximum amount of points you could score would be all combinations possible. The letter boxes let you see how close you are to that goal.

The way a player plays Word Twist, is with a friend. You have to choose a friend to invite to play with you in order to play the game. That person either has the option of joining your game, or if they decline or do not respond, you play by yourself.

Word Twist probably has the most customizable gameplay out of all three games discussed in this review. You can choose the number of rounds you would like to play (2-10), the time duration of those rounds (1, 2, or 3 minutes), the dictionary you would like to use (Eng standard, ENG TWL, ENG Slowpods, French, or Italian), and the board size (6 or 7 letters).

Hints

• Bigger words just like in the two previous games, gain you more points. So do big words before short words.

• You can use letters more than once, so do not be afraid to use the small words.

• Type in the words, and then click enter. This is so much faster than clicking on each word.

• Play the game a few times and figure out what settings you like. With its highly customizable features, you can configure Word Twist to give you the edge over your friends if you know what you like.

• If you cannot come up with anymore words, click twist. This reorganizes the words and gives you a new way to look at the letters.

• If you need to see the last word you successfully typed in, click last word. This comes in handy if you can build off of it, such as a root word.

Word Twist Addictitiveness Score: 6

Word Twist is fairly addictive. But since you control lots of variables, and you need someone to play against in order to make it really fun, the amount of times you can play is limited. There is always going to be peer pressure to do something else besides sitting in front of your computer screen.

Word Twist Level of Fun Score: 8

Word Twist is very fun. Allowing you to compete against your friends is what really makes this game. I would however, enjoy a solo mode like some of the other games above, so I could work on my game, and play against my high scores.

Word Twist Amount of Time Score: 10

The amount of time for Word Twist is perfect, because you control the amount of time you would like to play. Great for a couple of hours, or just a few minutes, you decide.

Word Twist Total Score: 8

While Word Twist is very fun, and allows you to play with friends, the customization seems to tease you with possibilities. It would be greatly improved with different modes of play, and even more options. If Word Twist's focus is on customization, then it's focus should be on customization. A few steps in that direction is not enough, it should commit.

If you want to try out Word Twist, just head to Facebook and search Word Twist in the search bar. You should then be able to play it. Have fun!

In this review we looked at three different mini games created by Zynga. These games were, Path Words, Scrabble, and Word Twist. We rated each game on three categories, Addictiveness, Level of Fun, and Amount of Time. 

This review's purpose was to educate you on the three games covered, and give you some insight into how each is played, and a rating of each. If you found this review to be helpful, please leave a comment down below. If you didn't like this review, then please let me know why. 

Thanks!

This review was done by gregormjason.

The social network on which these games can be found is Facebook.com

The games' creator's website can be found at Zynga.com

The reviewer's personal page can be found here.