I think we’ve established how much I enjoy word games. The question is, why haven’t I reviewed Scrabble yet? Well, I’ll tell you. It’s because all my time is spent playing it. With a little Catan thrown in, of course.

I remember being horrible at Scrabble when I began playing regularly some time in college, jumping for joy when I first hit those double digit scores, and performing obnoxious victory jigs whenever I landed a bingo, to the other players’ collective annoyance. Becoming a better player has definitely humbled my exuberance. Scrabble, I think, is especially hard for erudite folk with an appreciation for the vagaries and intricacies of language. It’s easy to think too critically of a game where the targeted placement of small and common ox can earn you 30 or more points, while the more impressive, and articulate eremite (a recluse, especially for religious reasons) may only tally at a paltry 12. I remember thinking that Scrabble took the joy out of creative vocabulary, the pleasure of laying down an obscure word, in favor of memorizing two-letter word lists and Q-word lists, in the silly, regimented hope of achieving some impenetrable word arsenal. These word lists that every serious player commits to memory just seemed so confining and didactic to me, to warrant any permanent spot in my weekly rotation of board games. But, like a phonetic hooker in those dank, forlorn corridors of unused word games, Scrabble tempts you and weaves words and anagrams in a way no other game does.

Scrabble was released for the iPhone a little while ago, but like most board games cum iPhone games, it has a longevity that renders it ageless. For this adaptation, EA Games took the game by the reigns and added a certain panache that I have come to equate with Electronic Arts: a slick, bouncy soundtrack, excellent interfaces, breezy multiplayer, and easy in-game navigation. The design of both the main screen and the board are digital clones of the actual Scrabble packaging, the red lines, and the Scrabble font near exact replicas of the originals – a definite plus for we, Scrabble aficionados in need of a perfect homage. To play, you may opt for a Quick Play, or connect with Facebook to enjoy a game with your close friends, or just opt for wi-fi multiplayer, to perhaps play with a stranger in your current location. I’m a solo kind of gal, so I usually tap the Quick Play and challenge the CPU, taking great enjoyment in my linguistic overtaking of its, apparently, computationally-challenged battlefront (it has yet to beat me). My one disappointment with Quick Play – and where other games like Words with Friends win me over – is you can only play one game at a time. This is pretty absurd considering you may want a backup game should you hit a roadblock with the first. But, true to Scrabble, or any physical board game, once you start a game, you should see it to the end.

I tend to turn off the music to allay any outside disturbances (how serious do I sound?), but considering it’s light, and possibly the least obtrusive music I’ve heard thus far for a game, I often just keep it on. I also don’t bother with uploading my own soundtrack to Scrabble, but it’s nice to know the option is there, and I’m sure many people play considerably better with Lady Gaga serenading them about their Poker Faces – maybe I’ll try that. By default, Scrabble peppers you with Game Tips – how to move your tile with one finger, while using another finger to move the screen; double tapping to zoom in and ditto to zoom out; pinching to accomplish the same – but you can turn these off, as any regular iPhone user will intuitively figure out how to control the game. The game board is naturally set at a distance so you may view the entire playing field, but whenever you move a tile to play, the game will automatically zoom in to your approached location – otherwise, you may double-tap anywhere on screen to zoom in on a particular location. When setting down tiles to form words, the game will automatically calculate the score, making decisions easier when oscillating between two or more possible plays. Should a word not be valid, the game will tell you, highlighting the words in red – you may then easily take back this play by tapping the Recall button, placing the tiles back on your rack. Shuffling is also made easier with a Shuffle button, to shuffle at random, or you can manually move the letters yourself, definitely more convenient when you’re working out those pesky anagrams.

It’s too bad the relative ease of this Scrabble won’t make winning the game any easier – but wait! For this Scrabble, Electronic Arts threw us a freebie with the Best Word option. Hardcore Scrabble fans will surely scoff at this option, seeing it to be a cop-out for n00bs who don’t have the patience to think critically about what possibilities lay ahead, and that may be a valid concern. It’s definitely easy to drift your glance down at the reassuring heart button, oozing warmth with its Best Word, beckoning all that is safe and assured. I say ignore the button if you’re already an adept player, confident in your abilities, but I definitely won’t tell beginning players to overlook its help.

Sometimes it’s good to get a freebie. For a game like Scrabble, it can point you in the right direction.