Customer Reviews

Scrabble Express Handheld

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The game is enjoyable. The sculpted case is a pleasure to hold. The computer's word list is vast, but disallows obscene words. New AAA batteries last for months. I'm hooked on the game, and believe I've gotten more than my money's worth. But potential buyers should know the following;

When the computer player has two blank tiles, it can take more than 40 minutes to come up with a word.

Certain racks of letters appear again and again in the same letter order. This suggests a lack of true randomness.

There seems to be a "vowel shortage" in the game. I was getting tired of seeing the one-of-a-kind letters Q, X, Z, K, and J showing up so often, so I ran two two-player games to quantify the effect. I exchanged the entire letter rack for each turn. Rare letters should have come up 5% of the time, but they appeared 14%. Vowels, including Y, should have come up 42%, but they only appeared 21%.

When exchanging an entire rack of consonants, it is annoyingly common to have Z's, Q's, etc. reappearing instantly.

All in all, Scrabble Express is a great toy to play with while traveling or listening to the radio. If the manufacturer is reading this, please include a way to access the machine's word list in future versions. A feature like that would be helpful in normal Scrabble games.

I'd been hoping that with the recent influx of new electronic hand-held games on the market, that Hasbro would release a Scrabble game. Naturally, when they did, I was the first on my block to pick one up.

While an entertaining diversion -- and it is definitely entertaining -- the game has some weaknesses. The AI cheats, and obviously. When the game is set on IQ level 1 (the lowest), the human player will be given an assortment of easy-to-play letters, with ample vowels and regular blanks. At the highest level (IQ 9), the human player will get very few vowels and will almost never see a blank. This isn't an increase in the machine's playing skill, but rather a handicap for the player -- although the computer's vocabulary and playing skill is better at higher levels, I would have preferred a better AI system rather than the arbitrary handicap. The menus are a little hard to navigate, too.

The game's 9x9 board (as opposed to Scrabble's 15x15 board) makes it necessary to learn new strategies. Boards are often filled with words very early in the game, and play will seem much more cramped than in a traditional game of Scrabble. This doesn't detract at all from the fun, and helps build strategic thinking for the real game.

At the lowest level, Scrabble Express is a great game for kids. At the toughest level, the machine is hard to beat, even for seasoned veterans such as myself.

The machine has four games: in addition to the 8-turn basic game (Scrabble Express), there is also a shortened 5-turn game, a "racing game" where players try to beat the clock to get the best words, and a "one liner" game where each player tries to make the best score using a single rack of tiles on a field of two crossed words.

All games (except for the racing game) are playable with two players. And what's best is that the game comes pre-loaded with the 3 AAA batteries needed to run the machine.

If you're looking for serious computer Scrabble, I have to recommend the computer game (also by Hasbro) but Scrabble Express is an excellent diversion and learning tool, with a few important weaknesses.

Scrabble Express is good. It is very easy to use, and it recognized 99.5% of the words I've entered. The LCD game board display is beautiful, and the case is sturdy and artfully sculpted. My only complaint is the rack of letters given on the first turn--it seems odd to regularly get a duo of Z,X, Q, or J. When you use a turn to exchange letters, they often come back to the rack. This leads me to believe the consonants and vowels don't come randomly. I still enjoy the game, and it succeeded in being addictive at 1:30 AM.

I am a scrabble addict and am always looking for someone to play. Now I have someone with me always. Yeah, there are pc versions and even one for the PlayStation - but this is hand held and I can take it with me. Waiting in line will never be boring again. The grid is smaller (9x9) but the challenge is still there and it is great practice for real human games. It provides a several differet types of games and levels of play for more interest. Great fun!

I really love playing it, and I keep picking it up. It does have its downsides, as other reviewers have noted. I pretty much only play the five turn game, as the Scrabble "Express" takes way too long coming up with words. I have worked my way up to the highest level of play, and I am able to beat it sometimes. My main complaint is the number of nonsense words and words without vowels used by the computer. The most frequent is "CWM"...we are also big fans of "SH," "MM" "HM"....etc. I try all sorts of nonsense words when I play just figuring that it might accept them. You start to learn the words after you play a lot. As other reviewers have stated, the uncommon letters to come up a lot on the higher levels. I guess I'm trying to agree that this game is not perfect, but its a whole lot of fun. I got it on sale, so I feel even better about it!

I felt almost guilty buying this for myself. But as a 38 year old recently divorced, hard working mom of a wonderful 5 year old...a little tool of diversion seemed to be in order.

I love the game. I was so lucky to have found it too...seems hard to locate in stores (so grab it online if you are interested).

I'm a college grad and have always loved scrabble. I'm not a purist..I just wanted something I could sit down with either at work on break, or after I put my son to bed and I just need a diversion for a little while.

If you are a scrabble purist, then please read the other reviews for insight. I however am just your typical adult who still likes to play games. I work hard all week and any kind of healthy diversion that I can fit into the few precious moments I have available for me, is worth it.

I found this game to be easy to understand and to play. I'm glad I got it for myself...I think it will even help keep me from grazing late at night int he kitchen. LOL.

I'VE HAD MY SCRABBLE EXPRESS GAME UNIT FOR ALMOST TWO WEEKS NOW, AS I WRITE THIS, AND I'VE BEEN PLAYING IT A LOT. OF THE TWO ONE-PERSON GAMES, I LIKE THE FIVE-TURN GAME BETTER. VERY CHALLENGING, AS I LIKE WORD GAMES, AND THE COMPUTER WILL OFTEN COME UP WITH WORDS I'VE NEVER HEARD OF. HOWEVER, I ALSO HAVE THE THIRD EDITION OF THE SCRABBLE PLAYER'S DICTIONARY, AND SOME OF THE WORDS THE COMPUTER COMES UP WITH ARE NOT IN IT, AND SOME OF THE WORDS THAT I COME UP WITH THAT I KNOW ARE LEGITIMATE WORDS THE COMPUTER WON'T ACCEPT. FOR EXAMPLE, IT WILL ACCEPT THE WORD "LEI," BUT, FOR SOME REASON, WON'T ACCEPT THE WORD "ZEN." A LITTLE QUIRK LIKE THAT IS WHAT KEPT ME FROM GIVING THE GAME FIVE STARS.

I just took this thing on a beach vacation and had a great time with it. I would recomment it to anyone who is a fan of scrabble. I'm such a nut I was actually considering buying an iPaq just to play scrabble.

There are a couple of downsides

1. There are multiple games, but I think there is only one worth playing.

2. The computer can be really slow.

3. The letters aren't really random

4. Some of the words the computer uses don't show up in my scrabble dictionary.

All said, just buy it. It's fun to play while you tan.

As other reviewers have indicated, this game has a 9X9 grid which causes the board to get cramped rather quickly. One of the results of this is that the opportunity to play large words, especially when playing all 7 letters for the 50 point bonus, is next to impossible unless you make the play within, say, your first two to three turns. After that it becomes just about hopeless. As a result, serious Scrabble players who utilize their ED, ING, and other such letter combinations will be severely handicapped.

This seems to be a common problem with this game overall. The better you are at Scrabble, the more this game will handicap you - such as when you set the game's IQ at its highest level and then you're repeatedly given no vowels. About the only positive from this, from a serious Scrabble player pov, is that you are forced to use your vocabulary more. Winning a game isn't so much about playing as many tiles as possible in a certain location as it is knowing obscure words to play within the confines of the board.

It should also be noted that the game has no real off button, just on and what appears to be a sleep mode. I guess the idea was to prevent anyone from accidentally shutting down the game in mid-play. But still, it's a rather annoying feature to put the game down and just wait for it to tun itself off.

These reservations aside, it's still a great game and will be fun for most people who enjoy playing Scrabble. But after several years, it's time for an improved redesign with features closer to a real Scrabble board.

The Scrabble Express is a lot of fun in a little bit of time but can also eat up a lot of time because it's so addictive.
The main problem I experienced was when the computer played a phony word and I couldn't challenge it off the board. "RU" is no good. Later, I tried playing the same word IN THE SAME GAME and it wasn't allowed. This bothered me. Playing phonies IS part of strategic Scrabble, so there should be a challenge feature built in, or at least as a feature to toggle on and off. Bottom line, the computer shouldn't be playing phonies unless you opt to have that included as part of your decision-making.
Another flaw is that many playable words are not acceptable because the built-in dictionary is the OSPD, which omits many words deemed offensive for school play. So, short words suited for the 9 by 9 grid, such as LEZ, won't fly.