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Just A Phrase Review (Nintendo Switch)

Game: Just A Phrase
Genre: Board Game, Education, Strategy, Puzzle
System: Nintendo Switch (also on PS4, PS Vita)
Developer|Publisher: POWGI | Lightwood Games
Age Rating: PEGI 3
Price: US $7.99 | CA $9.99|AU $ 11.99 | UK £6.99 | EU €7.99
Release Date: 6th February 2020

Review code used, thanks to Lightwood Games!

Short but Sweet

Cute and simple graphics with a perky soundtrack make it a relaxing experience.

Just A Phrase is a very simple game, with a very simple premise, that can easily be picked up and put down over your morning coffee. It’s a hangman-style game where you’re given 4 letters to choose from at a time; once you’ve chosen one, it auto-populates in the word and then the next set of letters appears. It’s nice to have a game that I can play one-handed while I consume my morning dose of caffeine with the other, and would probably be highly educational for younger children learning about homophones and spelling, but I found it a little too simple to really be engaging.

One-handed gameplay means I don’t need to put my coffee down, which is always nice.

The difficulty is quite low – even the final level on the hardest difficulty took me less 90 seconds to complete, and there’s no cute little animated sketch to indicate that you’re running out of chances. In fact, you don’t appear to be able to run out of chances, so there’s no urgency to really think much about it; to test the theory I kept selecting the wrong letters, and eventually the only letter it would give me as an option was the correct one, so while the concept tries to engage the brain there’s no penalty for just spamming the button until the game solves the level for you.

The game eventually solves the puzzle for you, simply by giving you no other options.

I do have to admit though, the cute and perky music did make me smile.

Conclusion

I went into this game excited, but ended up disappointed with what I found. At the end of the day it does exactly what it says on the tin, and I can’t fault it for that. The lack of pressure and gentle difficulty make it an ideal game for a younger audience, or someone who has difficulties with language or spelling, and the cute graphics and music do make it an easily relaxing game.

Unfortunately, that same lack of consequence and difficulty means it just isn’t for me, or probably many logic-minded adults who are after a challenge. I would’ve been a bit miffed if I’d bought it for myself, but would happily buy it for my goddaughter.

Final Verdict: A good game, just not for me.

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