I was never a big Scrabble fan, but I thought that playing it on Nintendo DS would be a bit more fun, sadly it ended up being a big disappointment for me from start to finish. Scrabble from EA for Nintendo DS is just as boring as I expected. There are 3 ways to play Original, Slam and Timed mode. The graphics are decent and represent the game well and that s just about all I can say that is positive about the game. The touch sensitivity in the game is the worst I have played on DS, it makes it very difficult to move letters on and off the board and select the menu.
The game features a great tutorial, but really the game is pretty much straight forward if you have ever played Scrabble. One thing that I came across is that the challenge never worked in my favor. I would put down ‘Human’ or ‘House’ and the computer would seems to always win the challenge. I also do not like the fact that the colored points on the squares are so small so that you cant tell what points you are racking up when you are putting letter downs. You can zoom in to check but you can not put a letter down in zoom mode. Also the touch is so super sensitive that it is a pain to get from one mode to the other. There is also the Timed mode which lets you select a time increment of which you need to put a letter down to make a word which can be set in increments of 30 seconds, 1 minute, or 2 minutes.
Overall if you are a big scrabble fan that you need to own it for your DS then you might enjoy it – just be patient with the game’s flaws. Sometimes board games should be left alone in their classic form and this is one such time. Scrabble retails for $27.99 at Amazon.
Good: The graphics are decent and realistic for a board game on DS.
Bad: Actually playing the game is a challenge and you almost never beat the computer.
