Put down those pens; when it comes to traversing dangerous towers it's the wand that's mightier than the sword. Blending together Scrabble and sorcery, Spellspire is the latest title from prolific indie developer 10tons. Light on story and setup, it relies on its central concept to hook the player in for shorter play sessions that are ideal for a handheld. But is there enough magic here to make it last in the long run?
Whether you fancy yourself as a wordsmith or a wizard, there's a tower full of monsters to conquer across 100 different floors. Our brave hero totters from left to right, pausing in front of enemies to attack before moving on to the next. You never assume direct control of the little guy, rather you get an overall view of the floor and a bundle of ten random letters to the bottom right of the screen. Your job is to select any of the available letters and form them into a word that's comprised of at least three, which is then cast as your attack. Enemies will only offer a brief window of opportunity before they retaliate, so you'll need to think on your feet and throw out as many words as possible within that time.
By defeating any monsters in your way you'll eventually make it through to the end of the floor, earning a chance to rest your weary brain before jumping into the next. In between levels you're also able to visit the shop, where gold pieces you earn from fallen enemies can be spent on upgrading your equipment or buying entirely new gear with different stats and abilities. There are stats determining your health, your attack rating, and even status ailments you can inflict by using certain wands. Enemies will also randomly drop usable items - such as health potions - but for the most part there isn't too much in the way of decision making before simply continuing on. Just equip your strongest gear and hope the letters land in your favour.
Similarly, there isn't really any thematic rhyme or reason to what you're doing or why - other than the fact that goblins and skeletons are just evil by default - so your journey to the top of the tower is fueled only by the simplistic gameplay itself. While things start off relatively easy, it quickly becomes apparent that replaying older levels is downright inevitable in order to grind for coins, as later gear becomes all the more necessary and all the more expensive. Thankfully this repetition is alleviated by extra challenges to complete, and the fact that your selection of letters is totally randomised every time you enter a floor.
Difficulty is also somewhat anchored around which random letters you receive. Things get pretty tricky, and while initially confident, later levels left us wondering if we could ever spell at all. Having a nice mix of vowels and consonants makes for a varied selection of words, but it's also possible to be stuck with three 'O's or too few vowels to work with. This can be a bit frustrating, especially against boss enemies which can easily kill you in one hit, so we're happy to report that you can use some not-so-nice words and they'll be recognised in-game. If you've ever wanted to shout abuse at a persistent enemy and have it do some actual damage, now's your chance.
All of this in practice makes for a bit of a grind, but there's a breezy interface that cuts down on loading and trims most of the fat. It's easy to revert back to word stems to jump around more complicated combinations. 'Door' for example can quckly be recalled and expanded into 'Doorway' if the letters fit, and the ever-adaptable letter 'S' comes in handy to squeeze a few more uses out of words with plurals. You'll need to pull tricks like this in order to survive, and opting to use the game's touchscreen controls while in portable mode can speed up your word-wrangling in a pinch. Traditional controls also work fine, though you'll need lightning reflexes to cope. At the end of a stage the game automatically tells you the longest word possible from the available letters, which is an exercise in learning dumb words you never knew existed. Like Jentacular.
Spellspire definitely works better in shorter bursts, given that each floor only lasts a couple of minutes, and you'll likely be replaying previous levels to gather coins. There are hours of content here but it's basically the same routine on a loop, with different enemy types and new gear to break the monotony. Clearing all 100 floors unlocks an additional mode to test your skills further, but learning to adapt and work with the 10 letters you're dealt is as far as the gameplay really goes. If you like word puzzles then this is great, and the fantasy setting lends a nice overlay to proceedings at the very least. The game runs smoothly, and the music sounds straight out of a spooky cartoon castle, which is perfect. If you definitely don't like word puzzles then this will likely fall short for you.
Conclusion
Spellspire is simple, unique, and will make you feel like your English skills are on par with a 10-year old. The fun blend of word puzzle and fantasy adventure is enough to flesh out hours of content, and the snappy interface makes it easy to jump in for a few floors of spellbinding action. Longer play sessions wear a bit thin due to the need to grind, and the inconsistent difficulty makes progression feel less satisfying than it really should. It's not out to impress with its story or visuals, but if you want something quick and easy to play in handheld mode then it's a pretty solid choice. At its current price we'd only really recommend it to players who enjoy word games in general, and maybe keep a dictionary close to hand...
Comments 27
for some of these people on here a spelling game is going to be the hardest game theyve ever played.
thats a fact.
@ogo79 Especially for those from the US...
@ogo79 I can't tell if you're lack of apostrophes and caps is an intentional parody of said people, while simultaneously protecting yourself from people attacking your spelling or not, but I'm going to assume so.
@link3710 You should assume that he's American.
And he is.
@link3710 And your usage of "you're" instead of "your" in this chain of complaining about spelling just adds to the confusion.
We are doing this on purpose?
Once again, a reviewer should at least have SOME interest in the game type they review. Giving this a 6 is ridiculous. The game is actually very well made, packed with features, and really exercises your brain. Repeatedly noting that this is only fun if you like word games is unnecessary - I never noticed that being stated in a Mario review as it only being fun if you like platform/adventure games!! If you're looking to hire people who will write in depth reviews on casual games who will write what all the game really has to offer without some ridiculous bias, give me a call.
@CheezIt Would be a good point if all genres were 1) equally interesting inherently and 2) equally widespread. It's hilarious that you think you'd write a better review if you don't even know basic concepts of the game industry. Jussayin' my dude.
@CheezIt This site gave Letter Quest Remastered an 8.
Letter Quest and Spellspire coming out at the same time… confusing to say the least.
@link3710 I hate it when people are lack of apostrophes and caps. (Sorry, couldn't help myself...)
To be fair, everyone's spelling has been pretty on point so far. I was playing Letter Quest earlier today, and poor punctuation will not disqualify you.
@CheezIt Your style of argumentation certainly suggests wisdom that has ripened over time.
Making assumptions, juvenile remarks and not providing any arguments, good stuff.
@CheezIt That's like saying movie reviewers who like sci-fi shouldn't review non fiction flicks.
@CheezIt I get your point but, if a review was done by a person who likes the genres they're reviewing in then, almost every review would be biased or at least one-sided. Starry eyes can sometimes make bad games seem good based only on the source material or nostalgia. I prefer all types of reviewers, reviewing all types of games. You can just read different reviews from different sites. That's always the best way to form an opinion. In my opinion. Lol
My wife and I were super excited for Spellspire. When we played it, we were frustrated by its reliance on luck factor overwhelming need for speed and perfect reflexes. We checked out Letter Quest and found that much more to our liking.
So is this basically a simplified version of scribbleknots with a different theme?
This is a 2 year old mobile game. And it actually makes more sense to play it with touch in portrait mode on a phone.
@Prof_Yoshtonics I disagree. There's no reason to think just because someone likes a genre of game, they'll rubber stamp every game in that genre. If that were true, most game reviews would be rubbish, since it's more common than not for reviewers to like the genre of game they're reviewing. There's no need for a reviewer to love the genre of game they're reviewing or be an expert in it, but they probably shouldn't fundamentally dislike the genre either if they're going to write a useful review.
For instance if I was reading a review of a turn-based RPG, and the reviewer didn't like it, and kept saying things like "you're going to be bored, unless maybe you're one of those people who likes turn-based games", I'm probably not going to bother finishing the review, since I can't rely on that reviewer to give a good account of how the game compares to other turn-based RPGs if they clearly dislike the genre as a whole. Or for another example, I don't like horror games. It doesn't matter how well made one is, I just don't like being shocked or grossed out by a game. So I'd be a bad pick to review a horror game, since I almost certainly wouldn't like it, and wouldn't be able to say how good it is as a horror game.
@CheezIt I think the best thing to do is read the review, and then ignore the score. The review (for me) sums up the game rather well, but the score is far more subjective.
I think one thing I'd like to see added to reviews is how appealing a particular game may be for the intended audience. I've seen a couple of games that I think my kids may love, but there's never any explanation as to how good it may be for someone else.
@CheezIt Well said. I hope Nintendo Life managers follow your advice.
@GC-161
@link3710
i was serious.
about my deal over here though
i play beat em up games. ive payed my dues
people of my degree are not required to use apostrophes and caps.
@Kiyata If I'm not mistaken, when @Fazermint was born, you were old enough to drive to a store and buy Metroid II for the Game Boy or A Link To The Past for the brand new Super Nintendo.
Or old enough to develop games.
Interesting generational gap, Batman.
@GC-161 I started developing games in the 70s. His parents might not have even met at that point!
@Kiyata Nice that you're old. But what does that have to do with anything at all? I mean, you obviously don't have a meaningful response to the points I raised. I don't subscribe to the notion that someone is automatically correct because they were born earlier. Dumb people grow up, too.
@Fazermint it's hilarious that you even forgot the whole point of the discussion 😂
Ok that's enough of that.
I finally finished the spire and got all 100 stars, but did anyone else run across a bug in the dungeon that ended your run? I've encountered a quest that requires me to beat a certain monster three times, but that monster doesn't appear in that level at all. So I guess I'm done, lol!
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