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Being a welder of words admittedly sounds rather poncy. However, there's no better explanation
for the task set upon you in... 'W.E.L.D.E.R.'. Luckily swapping tiles to create words is
a lot of fun, and thanks to some interesting little gameplay additions, a rather unique
experience among word and puzzle games is to be had
The core of the game is a mix of Bejeweled and Scrabble. Tiles can be swapped horizontally,
vertically, and diagonally to create words of four letters or more. There is a power
meter that is filled depending on the complexity of the words created, whether or not more
than one word was created at once, and a multitude of other bonuses (some involving special tiles).
When this bar fills, more swaps are added. If you run out of swaps before completing
your word quota for the level, then it's game over. Aside from swapping tiles, your moves
can be used to burn letters onto wooden blocks which is really helpful when your eyes can't
find a good move or you don't wish to waste too many turns lining up that seven letter
beauty.
Another great feature is the automatic word submission. The game's dictionary will give
you points and remove tiles the instant a word is formed, and in case you formed a word
by accident or have no idea what a particular word means, just tapping on the word in your
formed words list will bring up the dictionary definition. This game teaches and entertains.
This is strictly a game of tiles and letters. While everything is presented nicely, Welder
will not wow anyone with visual flair. The music does a nice job of aiding play without
being intrusive but the downside of that is that it isn't very memorable.
Welder is a must buy for fans of word games. It's addictive and has enough variety in the
way the levels work to be highly replayable. It would be interesting to see if the developers
could design a multiplayer component aside from leaderboards, but that would simply be
a nice addition to already very solid game.