My Word Coach falls in that category of DS games that have many gamers arguing they are not games and do not sound enjoyable. Some believe these games are a blatant† aberration†: an anattempt to gain a quick buck. I believe this form of entertainment† is referred to as Edutainment. Argue the semantics† as much as you wish, but I’m finding My Word Coach an exhilarating† experience! The game is filled with mini-games designed to increase the size of your lexicon†. The game implies that this form of lexical† enhancement is sure to improve your relationship. Who would have thought a few years back, a simple game could increase the size of your lexicon!

For instance, there is a missing letter game, where you insert what’s missing. The more difficult version of this mini-game intentionally mispells a word and asks you to identify and replace the incorrect letter. Turns out this is a lot more complicated than you might think. Another game will display a word and you must match it with 1 of 2 definitions. In this game you have a 50% chance of getting it right, so you could potentially† guess. A similar game increases the probability† by having 4 words and about 5 definitions to choose from. Ubisoft added a fun flavor to My Word Coach with games like Pasta Letters and Safecracker. In Pasta Letters you are shown alphabet soup and a definition. You must arrange the pasta letters so they spell the correct word. While you are doing this, the pasta letters slowly sink to the bottom of the bowl and a timer is ticking. To make the pasta rise again, you must blow on the DS. In Safecracker, you are given a definition and you must use your stylus to spin a safe-like dial to select the correct order of the letters needed to spell the word. You are put up against a computer player, racing to see who can achieve† this first.

The game supports local single-card download and multi-card game modes. I have yet to play the multi-player mode, but I envisage† these mini-games really shinning when played against friends. My Word Coach offers many more amusements† than mentioned in this article, an essential† plethora†. I strongly recommend this game for anyone who is looking for a fun way to augment† their vocabulary and evolve† their spelling skills.

†Words pulled from My Word Coach!

Tags: Review, Ubisoft, Word & Puzzle

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 at 9:24 am and is filed under DS, Nintendo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.