Game: Alphaset by POWGI
Genre: Puzzle | Education | Strategy | Board Game
System: Nintendo Switch ( also on PS4)
Developers | Publishers: Lightwood Games
Age Rating: EU 3+ | US E
Price: EU €7,99 | USD $7.99 | UK £6.99
Release Date: August 27th 2020
Review code used, with many thanks to Lightwood Games
Lightwood Games, a small independent game developer based in the UK and are known for their simple, no-fluff word logic puzzle games released on consoles and mobile. I’ve more than a few of their games downloaded to my 3DS and Nintendo Switch. Let’s see what this new one holds!
Logic Word Puzzle
Alphaset by POWGI, released recently for the Nintendo Switch, is no exception to Lightwood rule of no-fluff game design, as it’s the quality of the puzzles that make the games so popular among word puzzle fans.
In the days before mobile gaming where all the rage I used to purchase Kriss Kross puzzle books from my local newsagents to keep my brain active when I wasn’t gaming and now here we are with a similar style of puzzle on my favourite system.
Fill the Empty Space
In the Kriss-Kross puzzles books you were given a list of words of different lengths, and you had to fit them all into the grid.
In Alphaset the premise is similar to the Kriss-Kross puzzle, the difference is it’s the 26 letters from the alphabet you are placing from the pool of letters on the right of the screen into the gird. To help you along some of the letters are already placed in the grid.
You have to guess the word and fill in the correct letters to complete the word, the catch is you can only use each letter from the alphabet once in the grid. As you place each letter in the gird it is crossed out on the right so you know you have used that particular letter already. If you think you have placed a letter in the wrong place, you can use the quick check feature which will tell you how many letters are in the wrong place and remove them for you. It’s a great feature to have, as all it takes is a few letters out of place to put a halt to the puzzling fun.
There are 120 puzzles in Alphaset by POWGI and your reward for solving each puzzle is a bad dad joke, such as this little gem…“What do you call a belt made of watches?” A waste of time.
Alphaset by POWGI offers just the right level of challenge and even more of a challenge if your vocabulary and deduction skills aren’t the best. It’s the kind of game that is fun to play in shorter bursts or in-between a longer gaming session of the latest adventure game or whatever you are hooked on at the time.
Visuals and Controls
Alphaset by POWGI has the same upbeat music and neat, clean layout as other POWGI games. You can play the game either by using the joy-cons or the touchscreen and both work equally as well.
You can change the background of the puzzle board to white or black, it is nice to have to be able to do this, especially if you find the white too harsh on your eyes.
It’s also nice to know that when you exit a puzzle halfway through solving it, it will remain the same as how you left it. Sometimes taking a break and coming back to it really helps as you see the puzzle with a different perspective, find a couple of letters that fit just right and the rest is then a piece of cake.
Conclusion
The game is built to the POWGI standard, very plain and the focus, as it should be, is the puzzle in question. The rules are laid out clearly at the beginning and are easy to get back to if you’re not familiar with this type of puzzle or have left the game for a while and need a reminder.
Alphaset by POWGI does what it’s good at effectively, a simple enjoyable word puzzle. If word puzzles are your go-to genre, I recommend Alphaet by POWGI has a spot on your Nintendo Switch.
Final Verdict: I Like It 