It's International Scrabble Day (13 April 2012) - but if you don't fancy digging out or paying-up for a board game when the gaming nostalgia hits, use your broadband to get your Scrabble fix online. Just read on for some ideas on where to go if you're looking for online games, puzzles and feel-good retro classics … and get gaming with Plusnet.
Get your Scrabble fix online:
- Scrabble
Keep your mind sharp and limber up your lexicon with a game of Scrabble on International Scrabble Day. Just play online for free using the official Scrabble app on the official Scrabble Facebook page where you can also check out Scrabble's official winning word lists and word of the day. If you can make the word fibre (or fiber), please save a screenshot and let us see!
If you're short on time, you can also try Mini Scrabble - a 9-tile board version where you can only play 3-letter words.
- Scrabb.ly
Scrabb.ly - or Word Squared, as it's now been dubbed - is a must-try for crossword-fans looking to play a souped-up version of Scrabble with other wordsmiths on a super-size board.
You play Scrabb.ly by making words from letter tiles and placing them on a scoreboard - like Scrabble. But with Scrabb.ly, you get three lives. If you swap out your rack for new letters, you lose a life. If you form a word over a star-marked tile, you gain a life. You play until you run out of lives and then your score's calculated for you.
You can drop in and out of play whenever you've got time and your browser will remember your score - so it's great if you're looking for a distraction to jump in and out of while you're at work.
- Words With Friends
It would be wrong to talk about Scrabble without mentioning Zynga’s hugely popular Facebook [-Censored-] smartphone app that provides an easy and fun way for you to to go ‘tile to tile’ with all of your Facebook friends.
According to the latest metrics from AppData the game has a staggering 20 million monthly active users and 7.9 million daily users.
You can find free and paid version of Words With Friends on both Apple’s App Store and Google Play. Or if you prefer you can play via the comfort of your web browser using the Facebook app.
More puzzles:
- Sudoku
If you prefer a number puzzle to a wordy one, why not play Sudoku online? There are loads of sites where you can play online Sudoku or print off some puzzling number grids for free - like FreeSudukos.com where you can even upload your own Sudoku for other people to solve.
And some retro feel-good games:
- Snake:
Remember the '90s, when everyone was playing Snake on their Nokia 3210s? Well, you can try this gaming classic - one of the world's earliest computer games - on YouTube, for free. Just pause a video and press the up and left arrows on your keyboard simultaneously, and you'll be able to direct a near-transparent snake around your screen. You could even have a game while you're watching our new TV ad. Go on, it's a belter.
- Tetris:
Rivalling Vodka as one of Russia's best-loved exports, Tetris took the world by storm back in the '80s. And if you couldn't get enough of this tile-matching puzzle game back then, why not play it for free online? Just try FreeTetris.org - you can test your tile-placing skills with both the original Tetris game and Tetris missions.
- Pac-Man
Pac-Man is one of the most famous arcade games of all time and a hugely popular '80s guilty pleasure. If you can't get enough of the little ghost and monster-munching yellow fellow, use your broadband to play online at sites like Freepacman.org - where you can play arcade classics like Space Invaders and Asteroids too.
Do you play Scrabble online - or do you prefer playing a board game on an actual board? Are there any great games or sites we've missed out? Please leave a comment and let us know…