Our Wordoku review, what we have to say about the word game that brings together crosswords and Sudoku. Players race to create words and earn points using wooden letter tiles on a 4×4 grid, while skillfully incorporating all the tile symbols to double word values. The game is played over three rounds in which players earn awards for scoring the highest number of points — and for improving their personal high scores between rounds.
We took a look across fun, replayability, player interaction, quality and art & style to come up with the overall score for our Wordoku review. See the breakdown by category below.
FOR MORE: Wordoku Page | How To Play Wordoku | Games Like Wordoku | Best Wordoku Prices on BGA
– CATEGORY BREAKDOWN –
Fun (7 out of 10)
For the fun section of the Wordoku review, we award a great 7 out of 10. Like Scrabble and Boggle, Wordoku is a word building game specifically built for the player that is into that thing. If you are a fan of using your skills of the language to form words under tough constraints, this is a great experience within the genre.
Wordoku combines crosswords and grid constructing game sudoku to make a game that runs hot in under the guise of a five minute timer. You get a 4×4 grid of letters, four each containing four different symbols. You start the timer and flip over your letters. You now have to form as many 3 or 4 letter words within your grid, but you get the biggest points if you can can make a word that has letters each containing a different symbol.
Replayability (7 out of 10)
For the replayability section of the Wordoku review, we award a very good 7 out of 10. Games are quick, easy to get to the table and can dramatically change from one game to the next depending on what letters come your way. All these help with replayability but like any other word game, it comes down to your skill and who you are playing against, and can get boring if these do not stay tight and exciting.
What helps set this title aside from others is the quick time constraints. You have five minutes to build words and everyone goes at the same time. When you have time to think and second guess yourself, you might just sit there and stew in your doubt; or in the other players doubt if it is there turn. This game just makes you get in there and get out. You just have to do, not think too much, and as anyone who played Boggle can attest to, this aspect helps.
Player Interaction (6 out of 10)
For the player interaction section of the Wordoku review, we award a solid 6 out of 10. You are working on your own grid, using your own resources, so your actions will never sync up with what your opponent is doing. The player interaction comes in the form of round by round showdowns. Unlike some other titles, you are not working on building a great score. Here, you just need to build a score that beats your opponent. This forces you to keep your head in the game and always be aware of your opponents.
The pressure is on though. Everything happens at the same time and all you need to do is get a slightly higher score than your opponents. You can see everything they do and you get a very good sense of how much you are behind or ahead. This pressure cooker of emotions will keep your heart pounding and is exactly the psychological intimidation an experience like this needs.
Quality (7 out of 10)
For the quality section of the Wordoku review, we award a great 7 out of 10. Whenever you blend two mechanics together, the pressure is high to not only do them justice but to mesh the two in a balanced and exciting way. The combination of crosswords and sudoku here is just that. It is mostly crosswords, rewarding craftily making words that work horizontal and vertical, but it really sorts out the players from the pros with the different symbols needed like in a Sudoku puzzle.
The components and production are solid. Everything is done at a professional but there is nothing to this game. The box used, and subsequent price tag, could have certainly been smaller but you are going to be happy with everything you received.
Art & Style (7 out of 10)
For the art & style section of the Wordoku review, we award a very good 7 out of 10. There is almost nothing to this game but the pieces you get have style. The game is wooden letter tiles, a sack and victory tokens. The letters are wood finished in a beautiful shade. The typography and dark shade of the letters is bold and very sharply in each corner is a in color symbol to represent it’s grouping. You can just tell from the photos how good looking these tiles are.
The box logo and typography seems very fitting of the title. This is a word game so there is no art, just a canvas that really makes the building blocks of those words sing.
– IN CLOSING –
Wordoku Review | Board Game Halv
Wordoku claims to be fun spelled out, and they succeed. This combination of crosswords and sudoku has you building words in your own personal grid in under five minutes, not only getting multiple 3 or 4 letter words, but using the right mix of symbols to get big points. Like Scrabble or Boggle, this is really going to be for the word construction fan, but if you do like that genre, this title does a good job of carving out a unique experience within the space. Tiles are beautiful with a wood finish that are a joy to work with. This has been our Wordoku review, we hope you enjoyed it!
Product In-Stock: InStock
6.8
See the full explanation of the judging criteria here.
