Relaxicon Reviews

Fun but the dictionary is really inconsistent at times. I'll get excited to submit a long word such as "Defragmentation" only for it to not be accepted. It's really disappointing. Still a 6.5/10 for me though.

Great, very suitable for non-native English speakers to learn, I hope to produce a Chinese explanation package.

At some point, when you're far along in terms of earned points and don't want the particular run to end, it becomes less Relaxicon and a bit more Concentraticon and even Tensicon. Mainly, though, it is a simple, fairly easy and relaxing way to pass the time and work your brain and language skills. I really like the very detailed dictionary-based explanation of each applied word. It's especially good for those learning the language - or just wanting to broaden their vocabulary. Much recommended!

I usually love all manner of word games, but I played this for 10 minutes and found it so boring that I actually deleted it. There doesn't seem to be anything challenging or interesting within this game. You drag letters together to make words and earn points. The gameplay is clunky and slow. The challenges are boring: "make a word in 180 seconds" or "make a word with exactly 3 letters". This could possibly be more of a children's game - except that the colors/graphics/gameplay won't keep the interest of a child either. Sorry I wasted my money.

Relaxicon has the potential to be a very nice, relaxing word game. The game-play is casual and feels unhurried. The music is unobtrusive enough that I didn't immediately go to the settings and turn it off, which is unusual for me. They keyboard update helped immensely. The one caveat: the dictionary. When playing word games such as this, a typical strategy is to change a word to its plural or -ing form for extra points. Unfortunately, in Relaxicon, this often causes the word to become unrecognizable by the game's dictionary. For me personally, this is a deal breaker. That being said, I still find myself checking back every once in awhile to see if anything has changed because I DO think there is a lot of potential here.

[h1]New Review[/h1] The game has had a substantial update that fixes the issues in my old review! Along with other improvements as well. This now makes the game very easy to recommend. Features that help me to recommend this game are: + It's easy to understand and there's a tutorial. + No loading screens. + Word list is comprehensive. + It helps with learning alternative uses of words (and confirming existing understanding). + Two control schemes to suit everyone. + Fully keyboard controllable. + Very active developer. + Light/dark colour schemes. Also worth saying that this game has a very informative trailer, which does an excellent job of explaining the game. My old review is below for posterity, but please note that it is no longer relevant to the current version of the game. [h1]Old Review[/h1] This is close to being a good game, but I just can't recommend it because the interface is broken and frustratingly slow. Positives + Easy to understand. + No loading screens. + Word list is comprehensive. Negatives - Words very frequently don't register that they've been dropped in the scoring/break areas. This gets annoying quickly, especially after dropping it for the third/fourth time. - Can't type the word. This feels like a bizarre oversight for a game about words. The game is entirely about words and it doesn't use the keyboard. - Very easy to accidentally join up the wrong letters. - No attempt at kerning is made for the words. - Can only join to the end of a word. Frequently I'll see the letters in the arrangement of a word, so I drag the first letter over to the second letter, but it doesn't allow them to be connected in that way. - A challenge frequently pops up. It's good to have the challenges, but it would have been better to display the challenge at the top/bottom of the screen. That would be less intrusive and the player can see it at all times. - Doesn't accept profanity and no way to toggle that. The odd thing is that I think it would have been easier to write a better interface. Like this: * Type the letters of the word. * Each letter could be faded as it's used. * The word being created could be displayed at the top of the screen. * Press enter to submit the word. * Press backspace to delete the last letter. * Press delete to abandon the word and start again. That would be faster, more intuitive, fixes the bugs and makes full use of the keyboard.

[b] Pros [/b] [list] [*]Minimalist word game with great "feel" and responsiveness. Elements pop, float, and drift with natural animations. [*]Gameplay is straightforward and self-explanatory. Like Scrabble or Boggle, it maintains its longevity through simplicity. Longer words score higher. Varied words prevent hitting the "same letter limit." [/list] [b] Cons [/b] [list] [*]Dictionary is inconsistent. Sometimes word forms like past-participles, adverbs, and gerunds are allowed. Other times they are not. It all depends on whether the specific word is arbitrarily in the accepted word list or not. This becomes a problem when you're at risk of a letter-limit game-over or fail a "minimum word length" challenge because you can't add a -ing, -ous, or -tten suffix. [*]Mouse-based controls are unwieldy. Letters will too-readily stick to your working word, which can be particularly annoying when you want to simply want to drag a 12-letter word to the scoring box but a stray letter attaches itself at the last minute, requiring you to drag the word back to the "break letter" box, then once again back to the scoring box hoping that another letter does stick and make you repeat the process ad inifinitum. Playing via keyboard avoids this issue, but as of writing the only way to queue up multiple separate words on the playing field is through the mouse. [/list] [b] Verdict [/b] Recommended for word game enthusiasts, but with the caveat that this is not a perfect game. Buy on sale.

I can only really recommend this, based on the low price. It's good features include its word-meaning popup. and the sound effects and music are very pleasant. I do think the game would benefit from further refinement. For example, the way the letters accidentally stick together is annoying and so is the way you can easily slide a partially formed word onto the submit area and it grabs the 'and' when you were trying to make 'salamander'! The database of acceptable words needs improving, too. For example, it readily accepted 'pulling' but not 'flipping' or 'quipping' and it accepted 'print' but not 'flint'! The game could benefit from being more interesting, such as, perhaps giving you an additional score for making sentences from the consecutive words you submit.

Seems alright. Chain letters together to make words. No time limit/pressure. :) Score more points for longer words, etc. You confirm each word by dragging and releasing over a box at the right of the screen, so you can change your mind about which word you're using the letters for, up until then. :) Get the definition(s) for each word you've made - both in-game & with an option to look it up in your browser by clicking "Lookup" Each time you match a word, you have the left over letters, plus get more letters, to make the new word with ie game is a continuous thing of making word after word. You seem to get each new Challenge very soon after you passed the previous one. Click the Orange bullseye-ish circles at the top middle of the screen, to remind yourself of the current challenge. Can save at any time, from the options menu (ESC or cog at top left corner of screen) :) Works well with mouse.

Fun word game. Challenges are like "Use R to make a 5 letter word" sorta thing. If you have 4 or more of any letter available the challenge will tell you that you must use one. A very relaxing game to exercise your mind. I usually turn off music in games, but in this game the music is discreetly ambient and is integrated very well with the extremely soothing gameplay sound effects. It has Auto Day/Night modes (dark and light) but I prefer setting it to dark mode only because the way the letters float gives me a nostalgic frission of moving letters around inside the liquid darkness of a Magic 8-Ball toy. If you like words and relaxing, I can't think of a better game. The only downside is when it shows in the upper right hand corner that there are 1,380 possible words, and I can't find one! haha. Seriously though, I love it and it's cheap as a cup of coffee, so give it a try.