Review: Magi-Mix
Score:
89%
Version Reviewed: 2.00(01)F
Buy Link | Download / Information Link
I have to confess that the only reason why Magi-Mix didn't achieve a score of over 90% and thus an AAS Mega Game award, is that word games such as this are a bit of an acquired taste and won't appeal to everybody. But there's absolutely no doubting the usual ZingMagic quality, with rock solid gameplay and exemplary performance even when left running in the background.
You'll get the idea of Magi-Mix in 10 seconds, of course. You're given a longish master word from the game's 175,000 word dictionary and are given a number of slots, in each of which you need to find letter combinations from the master word that make shorter words of the right length. It's the sort of game that crossword puzzle fans have enjoyed for years and it suits the smartphone form factor perfectly.
The interface is particularly elegant: up and down moves you between slots, and left and right (and select) pick the letters to use next. Not particularly breathtaking so far, but here's the clever bit - for each slot, the letters you've used so far are automatically hidden so that you don't get confused - you can even browse up and down the slots and wonder at the way the master word's letters appear and disappear according to which slot is highlighted.
OK, so that bit's obvious too, now that we think about it together - so..... here's the clever bit. To help your poor beer-sodden brain get its few remaining cells around the possible letter combinations, there's a 'Mix letters' function on the menu - this shuffles the letters in the master word around each time you use it and almost always manages to come up with an order that kicks off fresh ideas.
Ah, so you thought that bit was fairly obvious too? Oh. But let's be clear here - Magi-Mix's cleverness is actually in that it does all of the above cleanly, elegantly and helpfully, without the interface ever getting in the way. Now how many applications or games can say that?
There are three difficulty levels, with the letters offered becoming more and more specialist (e.g. J, X, Z, Q, etc.). There's a scoring system too and you get more 'points' for using the rarer letters, but to be honest the points don't really matter as this game is about you pitting your wits against the game and against the English language.
Each game (filling your quota of slots from one master word) can take 10 to 15 minutes, depending on how well your brain is working, but even if you have to restart your phone or close the application to free up RAM, it remembers where you got to and pops up in exactly the right place. Impressive. If you really want to put yourself under pressure, there's the option of a timed mode, but to be honest the last thing you need when relaxing with a good word puzzle is a clock ticking away....
Finally, where would a word game be without a facility to cheat and look up the answers? A menu option is provided to show all the words of any specified length that can be made from the master word. You'll only use this if you're really stuck though... won't you? As I said above, absolute points aren't really important, it's all about the challenge of completing each game.
Magi-Mix is a beautifully rounded little game and comes with my highest recommendation.
Steve Litchfield, 1 Feb 2007
Reviewed by Steve Litchfield at