Author: Matt Akers

Scrabble and poker may seem like an unlikely pair, but the two have joined forces in Words & Cards, a new free-to-play puzzler from Ayopa Games. The result is unique to be sure—a colorful blend of vocabulary and card-playing that provides a few engaging sessions of casual, online head-to-head play. Over time, unfortunately, it becomes evident that Words & Cards lacks any real sense of depth or replayability. Like a beta still in its testing phase, this game sadly feels incomplete.

The former portion of Words & Cards’ titular blend is loosely based on Scrabble and its ilk, requiring players to build dictionary words from 11 randomly drawn letter tiles. Once words are played and points tallied, the game moves into the latter phase, and each player draws a number of cards determined by the quality of their respective previously played word. Using the standard rules of poker, you’ll finally lay down your best card combination—pairs, straights, and flushes—and points are tallied once again. The player with the highest score after five rounds of this is deemed the victor.

Intriguing as the pairing may be, the connection between words and cards here proves a weak one. Although your hand is roughly determined by the words you play, the poker component of Words & Cards seems tacked-on and unessential. Without bluffing, betting, or any sort of chat feature, it doesn’t really feel like poker at all. There’s a currency system in place, mostly to encourage in-app purchases, but wagering occurs at the start of each game, not between hands or rounds.

The most frustrating aspect of Words & Cards is that there’s no time limit. Not only does this allow for cheating (our opponents commonly played uncommon and clearly searched-for words like “zibeth” and “qophs”), but it also does nothing to prevent players from taking days or even weeks to make a move. This, combined with a limit on your number of active games, opens up the very real possibility of not being able to play at all when your matches aren’t moving forward. Other elements, like a repetitive soundtrack and the requirement to sign in through Facebook, provide other irritating quirks. Loading times are painfully slow during peak server hours, as well, and occasionally the app is simply unresponsive. Also, the game curiously does not track your stats in any way.

The bottom line. The founding concept behind Words & Cards is certainly unique, but a novel idea isn’t a substitute for good puzzle design and fun features.

Eets Munchies invites tinkering and experimentation. Like its PC and Xbox 360 predecessor—from Klei Entertainment, of Don’t Starve and Mark of the Ninja fame—this puzzle platformer asks you to move and manipulate wacky objects to help a hungry rodent find dessert. Although Eets doesn’t have quite the feverish pull of other similar puzzlers, it does a splendid job at continually introducing you to new elements and allowing plenty of room to learn and get creative.

Like a film director yelling “action” and “cut,” much of your time in Eets Munchies is spent pressing “Go” and “Stop” buttons. You don’t have the power to control the game’s lemming-like protagonist directly, but you can strategically place objects like bridges and fans to help guide him or her toward the end of the level. The goal is that when “Go” is pressed, the rodent will march right to its pink birthday cake stress-free.

As the game progresses, however, standard planks and trampolines give way to zany new objects, like inflatable elephants and a disembodied brain that induces an anti-gravity effect. Each new item introduced also comes with a fresh game mechanic, which makes for a steady progression of challenge—one of Eets Munchies’ biggest strengths. The most enjoyable aspect of the game, though, is that it never punishes players for failing. If a setup doesn’t work, you can simply do a little rearranging and try again. It’s not quite a sandbox environment, but the spirit of tweaking and tinkering is at the heart of this experience.

There are a handful of brilliant moments in Eets Munchies, wherein a dozen puzzle elements come together like a Rube Goldberg machine—but the total game package leaves something to be desired. Puzzle Maker mode has novelty value, but not being able to share your created level online is a missed opportunity. Also, the tone of the game comes off as kid-centric, almost like a cartoon animation app, but its often-difficult gameplay seems more suited for adults; it’s hard to believe that a young child would be able to solve some of these puzzles. And any sort of narrative background has been omitted. These elements certainly don’t ruin the core fun, but they do make the experience feel somewhat incomplete.

The bottom line. Eets Munchies will nourish your inner level designer, but the experience as a whole is a bit inconsistent.

Kahuna is a tactical, one-on-one board game about controlling island territories. The physical boxed set, originally published in 1998 and still available today, doesn’t look like much – a modest deck of cards, a few plastic pieces, and a minimalistic game board. But what initially appears to be a simple game of token placement quickly reveals itself as a meditative test of strategy. USM’s universal iOS version of Kahuna not only capitalizes on this clever design, but also adds a distinctive thematic flavor to the experience.

The game’s back story tells of two magical priests in friendly competition. In order to determine whose magic is stronger, they’ve faced off in a game to connect uninhabited islands by summoning bridges. Whoever controls the most islands by the end of the competition wins. Each game card, which depicts a specific island, can be played to summon a bridge adjoining that respective island. Alternatively, you can play two cards to destroy an opponent’s bridge. If at any time you control more than half of an island’s bridge slots, you place a point token on that island. Points are tallied after each of three rounds, and games typically take less than 15 minutes.

What makes Kahuna so tactical is that island tokens are incredibly difficult to protect. Your opponent can destroy any and all of your plans in a single turn, so anticipating future moves is a must. While chance is inherently a factor in any card-drawing game, Kahuna rewards thoughtful moves far more than a lucky draw. The iOS version offers a 12-tier single-player campaign that gradually increases in difficulty, and while outsmarting the game’s A.I. isn’t impossible, the computer rarely makes errors, if ever. Expect to lose often. Online multiplayer is available and mostly stable, but local, pass-and-play multiplayer is curiously nowhere to be found.

One of the game’s biggest delights is its tranquil sound design. Ambient ocean splashes and chirps of island birds – elements not present in the physical board game – provide a welcome contrast to Kahuna’s challenging gameplay. Unfortunately, no amount of tranquil sound effects can counter the fact that minimizing the Kahuna app during single-player mode almost always resets your game, and we noticed odd instances where the final game score was miscalculated.

The bottom line. Minor technical issues aside, Kahuna is a flavorful reintroduction to a 16-year-old game of Hawaiian-themed stratagem.