Gubbins Preview - Word Up
Filing this Gubbins write-up under ‘review’ is inaccurate as my version isn’t the full game as planned. However, I’m eager to share a few words (not literally – make your own up) as it’s been fun in short bursts.
Gubbins is a mobile game by Studio Folly, and like Scrabble, but without looking so bland. Instead, it’s bold, bright and beautiful, with some really lovely illustrations, feel-good tunes, and some whacky characters.
It is Scrabble for one, as you have a row of tiles at the bottom of the screen and have to create words with the letters available. Initially, your vocabulary will be words such as cat, dog, in, and perhaps pub.
Of course, words like cock are acceptable, though not a word I’ll use next time as I played this with my little girl. Yes, Gubbins can be educational, too. Primarily, it’s entertainment as you dive deep into your big bag of words to see what fits.
Gubbins Preview Thingy
That means the longer, the better (despite what they told you), but you don’t get extra points for specific letters or words. Even better, Gubbins isn’t some snobby, exclusive literature club where they’ll turn their nose up at you for being a philistine. We submitted ‘Trevor’, and it was accepted!
The game has three modes to choose from: Classic, Pencil and Daily. These modes only differ slightly in that the Gubbins of the title will appear more/less. They’re bonus titles that ‘buff or debuff’ your titles.
Sometimes, they will block an area, or you can use them to replace a tile such as the pencil – an absolute godsend when looking to max out a word, and you’re missing a vowel.
You can pause your game at any time, though why would you? Gubbins is so moreish, and the music that accompanies it is spot-on. Surely you can tell that there’s a ‘but’ coming?
Touchy
So… using a touchscreen to drag tiles can be problematic. When sliding them onto the board, it can be easy to drop one by accident and impossible to move it. There are three undos, but they should be reserved for strategy rather than human error.
This becomes more prevalent when flipping a tile. Some tiles will be two in a row, so perhaps you only want one letter? There’s a button to flip it, but again, this sometimes places the tile prematurely and ruins a run – especially if you’re all out of undos. Yeah, I didn’t like this aspect at all.
When you complete a stage, you can share this with your mates or frenemies who claim to know more words than you. Best of all, after ‘winning’, you earn Gubbins and postcards to decorate. This worked wonders with my daughter, and I enjoyed it too.
Coming back to the early comment about this not being as planned. This edition of Gubbins was a review copy, but a technical error restricted some access. It’s on my to-do list to purchase as it’s enjoyable – even for a fossil like me who doesn’t like mobile games.
The difference between me buying a game and reviewing one is time. If it’s for me, I can take my time, but what with being a professional and all, the goal is typically to conclude a write-up in seven days. On a promotional level (no, I’m not getting any money), I want to get this out there to recommend you check it out.
Gubbins is not only my go-to game when waiting around on the school run but a game I play with my daughter, and besides the enjoyment we both get out of it, it’s the fact that she’s being creative and learning, too. Sold.
This version was covered on Android.
