Word nerds, unite! This Scrabble knockoff succeeds where Scrabulous failed — that is, in not getting sued — by switching up the placement of double- and triple-letter multipliers and rounding the edges on the tiles.
Gameplay in Words With Friends is pretty much identical to the beloved crossword game: Big words rule, but prefixes, suffixes, and wisely played single tiles can rack up points when you don't have much to work with. Use pass-and-play for face-to-face action, or connect via Facebook or Twitter to whomp on faraway friends. One notable difference from the original: Though the app won't accept made-up words, it won't penalize you for trying them out — which gives rise to some annoying guess-and-check play.
WIRED Cross-platform functionality lets everyone in on the action, regardless of OS. Talk trash with in-game chat.
TIRED You can't play words without a data connection. No equivalent to the "challenge" in Scrabble.
