When Spectrum Holobyte launched its new game, Wordtris, it came up with an irresistible gimmick to plug it.
The company hired 12-year-old William Figueroa - the New Jersey youngster who was corrected incorrectly by Vice President Dan Quayle for "misspelling" potato - as the game's national spokesman.That's fitting because Wordtris ($54.95 for Super Nintendo and $34.95 for Game Boy) is an excellent spelling game, both for its entertainment and its educational value.
Playing is simple; playing successfully is a bit more difficult. Make that a LOT more difficult.
Wordtris operates much like the hugely popular Tetris. In Tetris, you'll recall, differently shaped blocks fall from the top of the screen and must be arranged to fill complete horizontal lines. When a line is complete, it disappears. If the blocks pile up to the top of the screen, you lose.
In Wordtris, lettered blocks fall from the top of the screen and you must arrange them to spell one of 50,000 three-to-nine-letter words in the Wordtris memory. Starting out as a "novice" gives you a warped sense of how this game is going to go.
As you move through the lettered levels in the novice category by spelling a set number of words, the letters fall faster and faster. Trying to find a spot for the falling block as it hurtles downward is tough.
If the lettered block lands on another one, it pushes it below the line on which words are formed. After the "well" fills, letters will stack above the line until they reach the top of the screen. As in Tetris, when a block hits the top of the screen, the game is over.
If you manage to graduate from novice, there are two even harder levels waiting - advanced and expert. The main difference is in the minimum letters needed to form a word. As a novice, you can use three-letter words. By the time you're an expert, you have to be able to make four-letter words with blocks falling at what seems the speed of light.
You can play this game with friends, either in competition or cooperatively.
Wordtris does give you some help. You get to see the next letter that will fall. Occasionally, a cherry bomb will drop; placing it above an unwanted letter will blast the letter away.
This is one game that won't make you cringe when you buy it for the kids.