Joining the ranks of Nintendo Wii puzzle games is the December 2008 release Word Jong Party. So how good is this hybrid of Scrabble and Mahjong? Read on to find out.
The one-part Scrabble, one-part mahjong formula has worked well for the developers of Word Jong Party. The Nintendo DS version of the puzzle game began a cult favorite, and provided hours upon hours of entertainment for gamers everywhere (myself included). So the December 2008 release of Word Jong Party should really come as no surprise. After all, why wouldn't they want to release a version of this quality word game for the hottest selling gaming console in the country?
| Gameplay | Rating  |
Earlier, I described Word Jong Party as a mix of Scrabble and mahjong. Essentially, what you do in Word Jong is pick tiles from a mahjong board and use them to build words. The bigger the word, the better the score. It's a simple yet addictive concept. The Wii version of the game adds some new tweaks and variations to the core gameplay, and for once the additions actually add something to the product.
Word Jong Party features two multiplayer modes, one that is speed-based and rewards players for making good words fast, and another that gives them unlimited time to come up with the highest-scoring work possible. Also, there is a single player campaign mode that switches up the rules between matches. For example, sometimes you have a limited amount of time to input a word, and sometimes you and a partner will need to collectively outscore another team. If that wasn't enough, there's also a daily puzzle calender, several different powerups you can use to trip up your competition, 40 different ranks to earn and tons of awards to unlock.
| Controls | Rating  |
The controls are passable, but not as solid as they were in the DS version of the game. Word Jong Party uses the remote pointer mechanism to control an on-screen cursor, and the A button is used to select a tile for your word. That's fine. Where the problems arise is the use of the B button to submit the word, and the minus button to delete it. Personally, I think it would've made much more sense to have a "Submit" button that you pointed at and hit the A button to use, and mapped the delete feature to the B button instead. It would've felt much more natural. As it is, the control scheme does take some getting use to, but once you get it down it works fairly well.
| Graphics and Sound | Rating |
Word games like this are never particularly flashy, but Word Jong Party is a bit stronger visually than some competing titles. The boards are easy to see, the avatar characters are cute, the temple graphics contained in the game are solid, and some of the power ups have somewhat snazzy effects. The music is okay--nothing to write home about, but it suits the game's Oriental feel and never grows annoying or irritating.
| Overall Rating | Rating |
Word Jong Party is a quality word/puzzle title that will definitely appeal to fans of the genre. The core gameplay, which combines the strategy of the classic mahjong game with the vocabulary-testing fun of Scrabble or Jumble. On top of that, the multiplayer modes are quite fun. This is definitely deeper than the Nintendo DS Wordjong game, but its also more expensive and lacks online play, which is unfortunate. In the end, I'm not sure that it's worth its $30 MSRP, but its definitely worth picking up if you see it at the rental store or in a bargain bin somewhere.