Tell me friends, has your casual gaming experience lost its pep? Feeling run down? Have you felt the dull drudgery of endless Tower Defense or Canabalt offshoots? Then let me introduce you to this new and compelling casual word game! What is this lexicographic marvel, you may ask yourself? What's so compelling about it? Why should I play it today? Well friends, this game, in its neatly-packaged Flash window, is none other than Moxie 2 with a capital M, that rhymes with N, that stands for New!
Made with only the finest Flash ingredients, Moxie 2 is the browser-based sequel to Moxie, the iPhone app that was originally featured in one of our Mobile Monday articles. Moxie 2 feels like a mix of Scrabble Slam! and solitaire and has a simple premise: Create words of 3 to 6 letters from a random assortment of 64 multi-valued letters to score points. Form new words by adding or replacing letters on the board (such as using the 'S' to change 'GAME' to 'GAMES' or 'SAME'), while avoiding invalid words ("Twaddles") that make you lose points. For extra bonus points, you can try to form special "Moxie Words" based on various themes (animal, vegetable, or mineral) for the round, or you can play without Moxie Words for greater challenge.
Moxie 2 has several new improvements over its predecessor. Along with a more streamlined, woodcut interface, the game now supports up to 6-letter words instead of 5, 64 letters per game, and has a useful undo feature. You can also see a list of what letters are still left before placing Moxie words, as well as the list of Moxie words themselves. Perhaps the biggest inclusion, however, is the Daily Challenge feature, which starts you off with three pre-set words that change every day. The developers at Blue Ox are also planning on implementing a global high score list for Daily Challenges, like they do for the game's iPhone version.
Analysis: Despite such a simple concept, Moxie 2 has surprisingly deep gameplay for a word solitaire game, and an addictive quality to boot. At its surface, there's the fun challenge of just placing down as many letters as possible to form legal words of greater and greater length, and this is addictive enough. Getting the really high scores (and bragging rights), however, involves the calculated use of Moxie words, which earn between 100 and 500 points (versus normal words which average around 20-100). Careful players can plan for certain high-value Moxies, relying on the "Letters Left" button to see what is still possible, and this depth (encouraged by no time limit) leads to much gaming satisfaction.
Ultimately, Moxie 2 is light and refreshing, with little or no aftertaste. My one gripe is not knowing what Moxie words are best to attempt in a given situation, forcing me to flip back and forth between the Moxie Words page and the letter screen. Perhaps future iterations of Moxie could include a real-time "cheat sheet" of Moxie words, always visible based on what letters are currently on the table. Despite this, the game's satisfying quality is something fans of word games will definitely want to come back to. So what are you waiting for, friends? Try your Moxie 2 today!
I'm just sad there's a "thicky", though there isn't a "chicky".
Hmm, who is this reviewer fellow; I daresay I haven't seen him before.
Anyhow, I must say, this game is nice and addicting.
Oh never mind, I remember that name.
The dictionary in-game is odd to work with. As far as I and Google know, "gid", "dites", and "bates" aren't words (though gid is sometimes used as a short term for some geometric shape, apparently), which makes it seem that maybe it takes some misspellings and Ss and Ys added to the end of a word.
I'm a little peeved it won't accepted "blop", which to me is a perfectly acceptable word.
I managed a score of 1200.
J-Witz is a new addition to the review team here at JIG. So are Brad, Cory, Tricky, and Chiktionary. About a month ago we announced that we had freelance opportunities available, and we accepted these five fine folks into the fold. Treat them well. :)
Regarding the dictionary, it seems the dictionary is always an issue of contention for players of these small 'portable' word games. If you look at it more as a constraint than a shortcoming, I believe you'll enjoy it more.
Hello review team! We come in peace. *gingerly lays down tray of freshly baked muffins*
The daily challenge would be more compelling if it was the same letters in the same order every time so you really go for the highest score.
Forgive my ignorance: how am I supposed to get a three-letter moxie word if the first words presented to me are four letters long?
On another subject: Congrats to the five new reviewers on being hired to work at the most awesome game-reviewing website ever. May you all enjoy a long and fruitful career at jayisgames.
Hi guys, glad to be here - hope you're enjoying our reviews. Looking forward to providing more game commentary goodness in the future!
Why doesn't my score show on Global Scores?
Blue Nina: If you play a regular game instead of the Daily Challenge, the board starts blank. This isn't immediately clear because the opening screen doesn't contain the whole menu; "Start" throws you into the Daily Challenge and only then can you access the menu to start a new game.
Why does everyone have to do youtube these days?
The help would be more accessible if it were just put on a splash screen. Grrr
Um. It tells me INDIANS is not a word but BUSS is.
Can someone please explain the "Daily Challenge"? Are you suppose to use just those spaces? How do you get extra points playing the daily challenge?
Any ideas for words to create after spelling Donkey & Monkey? That row becomes a dead zone once I get those two words built. Thanks!
Some words are rejected when they shouldn't be, eg mung which is a word- ever heard of mung beans? Rua is a word too and is a type of potato. There are others. It is very irritating when these are rejected!
Too bad 'pony' isn't an animal!
After Donkey and Monkey, I played Dinkey for 138 points. I don't get how to play the challenge board either. I guess it's supposed to be harder w letters already on the board.
No Moxie game shows up anymore on this site. What happened?
Why can I not not receive the moxie game totally blows
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