Lexic is a fast-paced word game that comes wrapped with a beautiful interface. The game’s main menu has the swirly UI, first spotted in Covertbot app, that houses the four different game modes. So what is Lexic all about? The core gameplay of Lexic is as simple as it can be. Formulate words from the thirty-five characters placed on the screen to rack up points and move to the next level. One can unlock tile sets and also fight it out with others members for a place on the global scoreboard. The tiles used to form a word disappear and are replaced by new ones. Then there are special tiles including gold tiles used to advance to next level, bomb tiles that explode if their count goes down to zero, lock tiles that act as a facade to the original tile and many more with interesting functionalities.

Quest, Cascade, Blackout and Stasis, are the four game modes based on the core gameplay yet vastly different from each other. Stasis is plain jane of the lot, ideally suited for Scrabble or Boggle lovers as the tiles are fixed. Craft as many words as you can but without repetition. Blackout as the name indicates results in the permanent loss of tiles once they have been used to form a word. Go long and score high in this mode. Cascade is more fun as tiles already used to form a word get replaced by new ones. Move your fingers fast before the time runs out. Quest is the new game mode that has been introduced in v2.0 of the app that went live recently. This one surely takes away the crown for me as it has levels that one can ascend and also utilizes the special tiles to their full potential.

Feats is the new in-thing among iPhone game developers with every other game developer implementing them. Lexic has 18 different feats that you can aim for and each feat achieved unlocks a new ability. Global scoreboard is your score of inspiration and you’ll have a tough time climbing up the charts. The developers have included two word-lists to use, TWL—the approved list for word game competitions in the US, Canada—or SOWPODS used in other countries. The user interface is intuitive and beautiful that compelled me—not much of a word game person—to complete quite a few levels in Quest mode. The performance of the app is snappy and it loads up rather quickly. Lost games can be resumed when the app is loaded up the next time.

The game has been well thought out leaving few bad things to talk about. The first thing that drew my attention was the way words are submitted. I would prefer selecting tiles by tapping rather than dragging my finger over characters and releasing to form a word. The game has a uniform difficulty level that might disinterest some. Otherwise Lexic is right on the money and commands the $1.99 price tag.