Windows Phone Game Review: WordHog

WordHog took home second place in Microsoft's U.S. 2012 Imagine Cup and now it's a free Windows Phone game available on the Marketplace. WordHog is an interesting word game that is a little on the simple side but it has an addictive quality to help it from getting stale.

From WordHog's main menu you will find options to play the game, view the game's instructions, check out the options (sound/music on or off), and view the local high scores.

The layout of the game has your letter bubbles scrolling by at the upper half of the screen, your hogs and trampoline mid-screen and your word building area at the lower half of the screen. At the very top of the screen is your score and timer.

WordHogs calls for you to bounce your hogs into the letter bubble field to collect the letters you will build words from. As your hog hits the letters, they line up at the bottom of the screen where you can drag them into the word field to build the words. When you have a word created tap the "GO!" sign next to your hogs to register the word. If you mess up, hit the refresh sign to clear the field.

You have two minutes to build as many words as possible but the two minute limit is a little deceiving. As you build words, you earn bonus time. There are also clocks that drift by and when hit by your bouncing hog, time is added to your timer. WordHog's two minute timer can easily turn into fifteen or more minutes.

WordHog is a multi-level game where the higher your level, the faster the letters scroll past. There are apples that are mixed in with the letters for bonus points, a bonus word sign to the left of the hogs, and as you create consecutive words from your gathered letters you will earn a combo bonus.

All in all, WordHog is a nice word game for your Windows Phone. Graphics are nice and game play is challenging enough to keep you interested. The game also has a slight addictive quality to it that keeps things from growing old too quick.

Having said that... WordHog can come across too easy. If you have a group of letters that you can't form words from, simply swipe up on the letters you don't like and send your hogs into the bubbles for more. While the game is multi-level, if you leave the game your progress isn't saved.

I don't mind the ease in which you can extend your time but if you fill your letter bin with letters that don't create words, then the game should be over. Not sure how easy that could be programmed into the mix but it would help WordHogs have a more completive edge to it.

While there is room for improvement, we still think WordHogs is a nice choice in word games for your Windows Phone gaming library. WordHogs is a free, ad-supported game that you can find here at the Windows Phone Marketplace.