Words With Friends is one of the best turn-based crossword iPhone and iPod Touch apps out there. The app is basically in the style of Scrabble without ever billing itself as such. Although the board is bigger, you have multiple game options, and it has a great free version as well as an upgraded paid version.

If you have an iPhone, you can play against others over your network, if you have an iPod Touch, you have to be connected to Wi-fi. Or, you have the option for Pass and Play, which allows you to play with one friend on your one device.

I’ve found this app to be great for those who haven’t yet been initiated into the iPhone universe. It’s a classic game that many people have played and are familiar with so dragging the letters to the board is intuitive.

Officially Words with Friends is my lazy Sunday app. My girlfriend and I play it throughout the day as we are sitting at a coffee shop or hanging at the house. Words With Friends hits the mark multiple times.

Successful Features:

• The game
• The ads
• Random opponent

The game is an obvious winner as it’s proven to hold popularity with similar style games. This one is even better because there are more special boxes where you can get triple letter scores, double word scores, etc (I’ll save you and won’t list all of them).

Why would I possibly list the ads as a successful feature? The system is quite smart. After each move you see an ad and can either be linked to the ad’s website, or disregard it and keep playing. They don’t really get annoying and during a game you may see 20 or more ads, but this isn’t disruptive as you just pass the game after your turn while the ad is displayed.

I also really appreciate the Random Opponent feature for when I’m really craving a game and their isn’t anyone within arms reach to help me out with my craving. Now we can enable players everywhere. There’s also a chat feature fi you want to talk to someone.

What I look forward to in an Update:

• Better push notifications when it is your turn.
• Previous games no longer listed on main screen

Sometimes I need to check back again and again to force the app to reload. This can be annoying when I’m playing a random game with someone. If I wait too long, they loose interest and no longer play their turns as often as I’d like.

I’m not sure if the previous games need to be listed in the menu, but it doesn’t really bother me yet. Of course, if I had 100 games, that would bother me. Maybe just use a link to a separate page where previous games are listed. Just a thought.

Bottom Line:

This is a great game! Go for it and you won’t regret it. I play once every few days and if you’re anything like me you’ll find it to be a great way to have a five minute vacation from the world.