WordsUp! Academy

Genre: Puzzle

Players: 1, Online Leaderboards

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Review:

WordsUp! Academy is a word-based Puzzle game released on the Nintendo 3DS in 2016 and ported to Wii U in 2017 as Words Up! Academy (with a space between Words and Up, for some reason). This is essentially an expanded version of the DSiWare game 3, 2, 1… WordsUp!, and plays much the same, with players given a selection of seven letters and trying to come up with as many words as possible that consist of four or more letters.

The presentation here is pretty simple. Your TV shows a still image of a fountain (the same one that was in 3, 2, 1), often with with a poorly-animated cartoony character in front of it, and sometimes a list of words that you have found (along with hints at words you haven’t), while the Wii U gamepad screen has the letters you’re using. This is backed by somewhat repetitive droning music. And when each match starts, you hear a voice clip of a group of people saying “three… two… one… Words Up!”

This game includes the original two game modes, one where you have one set of letters you’re trying to build words with, and another mode where you have a rapid-fire series of letters. However, the focus this time around is on competitive battles with computer opponents, who will compete with you to see who can claim words first.

It’s a nice addition, and with the game still being at a low price of $3, this isn’t a bad deal for a decent Puzzle game, but this really feels like a retread of the previous version of the game with only a few extra game modes added. There’s still no multiplayer (online leaderboards notwithstanding), and your options for adjusting the game are minimal.

In addition, this release has a few new problems. Once you start the game’s “story” mode (with a terrible, boring story about the unnamed player challenging various… teachers in a school or something, I guess?), there’s no way to exit out of it short of exiting out of the game, and there’s no way to skip the horrible dialogue either. This means that this game’s big new addition already comes with some tedious caveats.

Don’t get me wrong, WordsUp! Academy is definitely an improvement over the prior game, but it’s such a marginal improvement that those who played that game have little reason to get this version too. And in general players may still find that the wealth of games like this on smartphones really keep the appeal of this game limited.

tl;dr – WordsUp! Academy is a word-based Puzzle game where players are given seven letters and they must come up with as many words as possible using those letters. This release is only a marginal improvement over 3, 2, 1… WordsUp!, and only adds a few more game modes. It’s not a terrible word-based Puzzle game, but it still doesn’t stand out among the crowd of other entries in the genre.

Grade: C

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