The Bottom Line: Boggle is a great family game which can be used for educational purposes. Personally I'm addicted and love beating my previous high scores.
Since an early age I have been very fond of word games and puzzles, and am continually looking for new puzzle style CD-Rom games to keep me amused. It’s because of this passion, that I purchased Boggle CD-Rom after seeing it in my local PC-World.
*Background Information*
Classically Boggle is a word game that consists of 16 lettered dice and a 4x4 square grid. The lettered dice are placed into a clear cube container, shaken, and allowed to fall into the 16 grid squares available. Contestants then have 3 minutes to make as many words as possible (3 or more letters) from the letters displayed. Each word must be made up of adjoining dice (any direction) and each letter must only be used once. Points are then awarded depending on the number of words found, and the length of said words.
The computer version of Boggle not only includes the classic game, but also 4 other games based on the Boggle set-up. These are Breakaway, Battle Boggle, Space and In Your Face.
*System Requirements + Company Information*
Hasbro International, Inc, owns boggle but the CD-Rom is produced by GSP Ltd and can be contacted for technical support at www.gsp.cc
The system requirements are very basic, and should be compatible with the majority of home user PC’s.
· Windows 9x/ME/2000/XP
· Pentium 166 MHz or higher
· 32MB Ram
· 2MB Video Card
· Windows compatible soundcard
· Direct X (Available with the CD-Rom)
*CD-Rom Installation*
Upon installation you will be asked to confirm you agree with the licensing statement, and asked if you wish to register for online support. Registration provides you with information regarding new product releases and upgrades. You can either register online, by fax or post, or register later, but you do need to register within 30 days.
From the main screen the following options are available:
1. Technical Support – A section offering online help
2. Special Offers – A link to their current website deals
3. Electronic Manual – Requires Acrobat Reader
4. Run Program – Installation
The installation process is very simple, and full instructions are available. The whole process actually takes less than 10 minutes dependant on your processor speed.
*Boggle CD-Rom Games*
Upon installation you are presented with a screen showing you the 5 games available to play. Upon selection you will be asked whether you wish to play Original (see below) or Master (see below), how many players you wish to play with, and you are given the option of naming the individual players.
**Classic Mode** – This is a four-player game based on the classic manual version of Boggle. If playing against the computer you can select the computers intelligence level from Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced or Mr Boggle.
Once you have chosen your players you are presented with a countdown timer, or 3 minutes, and the familiar 4x4 Dice layout. The letters chosen are random and will change every time you start a new game.
The rules are pretty simple, and you are required to create as many words as possible using the 16 letters available, by linking the dice together to form words of a minimum of 3 letters. Your direction of word can go anyway, but you are only allowed to use each letter once. If you are playing more than one player it will be there turn as soon as your word find is complete. This can be that the waiting time for certain players is extended whilst waiting for other members to find an appropriate word.
Once you have chosen a word, click, and it will appear on a list on the right hand side of the screen. If you hover over this word with your mouse a pencil will appear and you are given the option of double clicking on the word chosen. This will then bring up a definition of the word. If you a word is selected that the computer does not recognise it will ask you at the end of the game whether you wish it to be included.
At the end of the game your score is calculated based on the number of words found, and their associated length. Remember the longer the word the more points you will score.
**Breakaway** - Breakaway is in a slightly different format to the others, and resembles a suspended cube of 64 lettered dice in a 4x4x4 format. The object of the game is similar to the other Boggle games, in that you need to make words of 3 or more letters by linking the dice. As you link a word the dice disappear to reveal the lettered dice within the cube. Not as easy as it sounds though as you have to strategically chip away at the cube otherwise your remaining letters will be scattered across the corners of the board and will be unable to be linked. Remember you are able to rate the cube using the right click of your mouse to see the all the dice.
The game ends when you have either used up all the letters or the timer has run out (3 minutes).
**Battle Boggle** - Battle Boggle is designed to be played by 2 or more players, so remember a computer opponent will need to be selected if you are playing on your own. The game itself consists of two trays, side by side of 8 dice letters. Each person must take it in turns to place his or her 8 letters in the tray before the word finding can begin. However you do not need to have placed all your letters in the tray before word finding can commence, however you must try and be strategic when placing the letters as you could end up with no words available.
When the game has ended you are provided with the full list of words that were available from the chosen letters, and again you can click to see a definition of each word.
**Space** - Space Boggle is designed for one player. Here you are faced with a stream of letters coming toward you, of which you must use to form words. You can choose any of the letters from any location, however you must pick them in the order of spelling. The diced letters will get faster as the 1 minute timer counts you down, but you must find 5 words before you can progress onto the next round. As the rounds increase so does the number of words you need to find…the only difficulty is the speed also increases as you progress through the levels.
**In Your Face** - The starting point on In Your Face is a layer of 16 blocks (4x4) that are used to make as many linking words as possible within the allocated time limit. Each time you make a new word, however, the dice disappear from the screen. Once the allocated time limit has expired the letters will rise, and a new layer of 16 dice will be placed beneath the original letters for you to make new words with. Each time a new layer starts the dice move closer and closer, until they are quite literally “In Your Face”. Once the dice are at this level the game is over.
*Scoring and Levels*
Each game can be either played at the Original or Master level, whereby Original is a 4x4 16 Dice game where the minimum word count is 3 letters and Master is a 5x5 20 Dice game whereby the minimum word count is 4 letters.
*About the games*
Considering I only purchased this for £10 from PC World, I think I scored myself a bargain. The games themselves are enjoyable (especially if you enjoy word puzzle style games), and its fun to compete against other people.
I have a few small niggles, and that’s mainly due to the screen size, as you can’t change it to full screen. You do get used to this however and soon don’t notice the smaller game screen.
My favourite game is In Your Face, and I find it more of a challenge raising the layers a couple of time before starting the game. This makes it slightly more difficult to lower the dice back down to a more manageable level. Other favourites include Breakaway as this is one of the more challenging games and is quite strategic. I’ve often found myself left with 5 or 6 dice that just can’t be linked due to the proximity on the screen, and I’ve had to wait until the time has run out until the game is over.
I think the game is suited to anyone over the age of 8, and could be used either as an educational tool for those at school, or just as a fun game.
Thanks for reading
Disclaimer: This review has previously been published on DooYoo and Ciao
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