Installation:
Today’s zip file of 11.5Mb which contained three files, a read me an activation module and a set up module installed to 17.5Mb. During the set up you are abe to select whether you wan desk top short cuts and quick start shortcuts. You do need to tick the checkbox to get either of these. There’s a shortcut and an uninstaller shortcut to the game automatically placed in the start menu as well as a link to the home page of RobinGames. If you don’t like those sorts of links they can be deleted without affecting the game.
Introduction & Game info:
This was originally given away back in March 07 and received 88% positive votes of 246, and received 97 comments. You can read those by following the link below:
http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/keywords/#comments
What a great repeat. Today’s game is not only fun, it's a great way to supplement that ‘boring’ English teaching with the kids. * see notes at the end of the review. Okay English can be really interesting if you like that sort of thing - I actually used to be into, English via word roots and collecting unusual dictionaries (e.g. Bernstein’s reverse dictionary) and even purchased an English course via the national press so that I could write excellent after dinner speeches and converse with statespersons or so the advert led me to believe, lol. It's certainly a fun way of spending a few minutes playing with words. I never could afford the complete oxford dictionary until it was put onto a DVD. Isn’t technology brilliant?
Today’s game is well worth the download, especially if you enjoy word puzzles of any type.
The options menu enables you to adjust the usual stuff like the music (which is okay, though I would recommend turning it right down low if you are going to play for a while) and sound effects. The music can be changed if you have an audio converter which changes MP3 or WAV files to ogg. There’s one available in the freeware library:
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/freeware/2007/07/30/free-mp3-wma-wav-converter/
You can also select windowed most as well as use a custom cursor that changes your usual mouse pointer to a gauntleted hand. There’s also a 3D Hardware acceleration toggle. With 3D hardware acceleration, three-dimensional rendering uses the graphics processor on your video card instead of taking up valuable CPU resources drawing 3D images; so if you have a fairly slow processor leave this ticked (I think it was on by default when I first installed the game), as it will help reduce choppiness during game play, especially when there’s a lot of movement on the screen.
There’s loads of awards to aim for, which is always a great addition to a game as it give you incentives to carry on. There are awards for submitting a specific number of different sizes of words for example you get an award for submitting 100 words using 3 letters. There’s actually three awards for each size of word from 3 to 8 letters in length, which includes 100, 200 and 300 times, making a total of 18 awards for that particular category. . There’s awards for being 1st, 2nd and 3rd on the high score board, and awards for attaining scores of 10000, 20000, and 30000, I scored 606 points on my first go (though this could probably have been more as I was concentrating on taking screen captures as opposed to actally making words –{an excuse for such a low score, lol} There’s also awards for playing a specific number of levels, the lowest being 10 levels. There’s anther 39 awards to find out about. Awards tat you do attain are shown on the playing screen above the word selection window.
Your progress is automatically saved when you exit the game, and when you return you can start where you left off or play an earlier level. While playing any particular level, if you decide you want to start again you can do so by pausing the game using the Esc key. This will bring up a menu which includes options, restart exit or resume the game. If you choose to restart the game you will automatically lose a life, though if you choose to exit then restart again via the levels selection map you do not.
By choosing words other than the ones suggested in the players info panel to the bottom right of the playing area you can earn awards, but choosing the words suggested gains you extra bonus points. For example creating 100 unique words, that is words that are not being suggested, will give you the first level of the award. Using the special bricks with a * mark allows you to make words that have letters missing from them. For example,
K*TE automatically changes the * to a I making KITE.
When first starting the game you are presented with an information screen (see the screen captures via the links below) which shows you everything you need to know about this game. You can also select (toggled on by default) an in game tutorial, which will take you through the basics odf the game. Later on when bonus items such as ruby and diamond gems are presented you will get little balloons popping up via the lizard helper with further information about the bonus. The lizard also acts as a warning if you are taking too long over thinking about a word combination; the levels are timed. It also comes out with some funny stuff as well, which will endear the kids to the game, (possibly). Once a letter has been selected for a word it cannot be used again unless you decide to scrap the word in which case you can use the clear button which is situated to the left of the word creation field, or alternatively you can remove individual letters by right clicking on the ones you want deselecting. To submit a word you can ether click on the green submit hand (note to the developer - maybe it’s the wrong color with respect to red/green color blindness) or double click anywere on the word you’ve made.
Try clicking on the lizard. He will cycle trough most of the phrases you are likely to see during the game.
At the end of a level you are presented with skills table. There are four to choose from:
• Freeze Tim
• New Row
• Diamond
• Ruby
As you progress through the levels these skills increase in value, so for example, if you choose to improve the freeze time, every time you choose a letter tile with the freeze symbol on it the time it freezes the tile selection
Screen Captures:
All on one page:
http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Key%20Words/?start=all
As a Slideshow:
http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Key%20Words/?albumview=slideshow
System Requirements:
Operating System------------Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP/Vista,
CPU----------------------------600MHz or faster Processor,
RAM---------------------------128Mb RAM
Conclusion:
Today’s game is well worth 7 out of 10. As with most games it wont have all the words you place into the selection box, but I didn't come across any while I was doing my initial testing, which is better than some word games we've been given previously, that seemed to refuse even the simplest of words. It’s a fun game to play with incentive to keep on playing for quite some time.