HexaLex by Nathan Gray is another crack at the hexagonal-grid form of Scrabble and it's at this point that a lot of readers may switch off, but hold on, it's honestly a great implementation. Small considerations such as additional rules which can be modified or even turned off make this an extremely challenging variation on a popular board game idea.
For fans of word-games it's likely you've already stumbled on this title, but the recent 2.0 updates have added some great new features and it begged to be explored. Most of the game's controls are completely intuitive, ranging from dragging tiles to their position on the board; tapping them in to place after marking a starting position; and controlling your zoom level with pinches or multi-taps. Scoring is handled automatically and several rules extend the ability to place words while ignoring 'trash' words to increase the available play-space.
Visually the game is kept simple with clean interface designs that give this a professional board-game feel. One of the most impressive features is the ability to run several concurrent games locally and online with several players and AI. iOS 4 backgrounding is used to great effect and allows you to keep your games live while notifications prompt you when moves are made if you're playing asynchronously with a friend or two.
Ultimately HexaLex isn't going to convert many people to a life-long love of word-based games, but for fans of Scrabble or word-games this is definitely a great implementation of a classic game.
Description
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"The whole thing is marvelous. The graphics are really stellar, and the controls are obvious, and perfect." -TheAppEra.com
"Hexalex delivers a fun word gaming experience that will delight Scrabble gamers." -BuzzFocus.com
* Featured by Apple: App Store's New and Noteworthy!
* Gold Award, 9.5/10 - GamersDailyNews.com
* Gizmodo: Week's Best Apps
* MacWorld: 4/5 Mice
* TUAW Daily App
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Introducing HexaLex
Scrabble fans, meet the world's first hexagonal crossword game. HexaLex takes the classic, easy to learn but hard to master game and adds a new dimension. Hexagonal tiles let you play words in three directions instead of two. Words interact in surprising ways! But have no fear, thanks to the innovative instant feedback system, tutorial, and detailed built-in help, you'll be laying down major scores in no time. If you're hooked on Scrabble or Words With Friends you're going to love HexaLex!
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FEATURES:
* Game Center Leaderboards/Achievements & Retina Display graphics
* 2-4 player online games, with push notifications when it's your turn.
* Feed your inner geek with extensive stats and records tracked in each game and over your career.
* Leaderboards & over 30 Medals, with or without Game Center
* 4 computer opponents for single-player gaming.
* Play online games in the plane or on the subway! Your moves will be sent the next time you've got an internet connection.
* All the tools demanding crossword gamers love, including tile shuffle, dictionary search, and a 2-letter word list.
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REVIEWS:
"Every one of us needs to snatch this up." - TheAppEra.com
"I will go out and say that this is even better than the traditional" - AppAdvice.com
"...fans of Scrabble will be immediately at home as soon as they start up this great app." - PlatformNation.com
"...for fans of Scrabble or word-games this is definitely a great implementation of a classic game." - AppSpy.com, 4/5
"Seriously, playing Scrabble now seems ghetto." - iTunes review
What's New in Version 2.4.0
Version 2.4 brings lots of improvements and fixes!
* New stats: double-doubles and triple-triples
* New record: most words formed in one play
* See your score as you drop tiles
* See player names in-game
* Sound enabled for push notifications
* Dictionary updates
* Smoother scrolling of game board for older devices
* Fix: Prevent AI from getting stuck passing forever
* Various other improvements
Comments
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FYI, HexaLex is now on sale for $1.99. We started the sale two days ago so I'm not sure why it's not showing up in the price history.
-Nathan
I don't see the video review either. Here's the direct YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppm_3NGhDns
Also, the icon & screenshots are from the older version of the game. Check the app store link or http://hexalex.com for newer ones. Still, thanks for the awesome review! (I'm the developer.) :-)
Oh, one other thing. You describe HL as "another crack at the hexagonal-grid form of Scrabble" but as far as I know it's the *only* crack at a hexagonal-grid form of Scrabble! There have been hexagonal word games of other styles, crossword puzzles, boggle clones, etc. but never a Scrabble-style multi-player crossword game. Honest! When I started out I searched pretty hard to see if it had been done before.
But I'm not complaining, just defending my tagline as "The world's first hexagonal crossword game." :-)
Strangely enough when I searched for hexagonal scrabble variants I came up with a few other products, but none on the App Store and certainly none I'd consider as well thought out as HexaLex ;) The icon not updating seems to be a server-side issue as I specifically refreshed the information for the review - I'll go smack the tech department around the head and find out what's going on :)
The video review doesn't seem to be working? (Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Explorer all tested)
Fixed!