Boggle

Other products by Hasbro

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00002S9MI
• Item Weight: 5 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #12,774 in Video Games (See Bestsellers in Video Games)

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  #42 in	Software > Children's Software > Age Ranges > 12 Years & Up
  #97 in	Software > Children's Software > Age Ranges > 8-11 Years

• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

GameSpot Review
Boggle CD-ROM is a faithfully computerized and expanded version of the board (cube?) game, enhanced with new variations on the basic theme of spelling words from a random assortment of cubes with different letters on each face and expanded to allow multiple players to battle each other across networks.

Boggle 101: You and one or more of your literate friends stare at a 4x4 or 5x5 matrix of letter cubes. You all spend the next two minutes ferreting out and writing down what long and hopefully hard-to-find words can be spelled legally from the letters in the grid. To spell a word legally, you must by able to place a mental finger on its first letter and move your finger through the grid, traversing the letters that make up the word in order, and always moving from one letter to another that is adjacent to it, either vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. After a couple of minutes of spelling words, all players stop and compare their lists, crossing out any words that appear on more than one player's list. Then, scores are tallied; longer words score more points. Winners are determined, and fortunes are made and lost.

On the computer, Boggle changes a bit. Hasbro has provided word gamers with the classic Boggle game, as well as five variations. Since a computer has but one keyboard, two or more human players cannot play seriously on the same computer. (The CD-ROM does allow multiple players to use the keyboard sequentially and play a game that way, but so much of the pace of the game is lost this way that I cannot recommend it at all.) Those who will enjoy this game will enjoy playing against a computer opponent, bettering their own high scores, and competing with players connected to the Internet.

Boggle across the Internet is great. Of the five different games one can play off the CD, three can be played on Microsoft's Internet Gaming Zone (http://www.zone.com), and they've all got their merits. While I think I have to claim Classic Boggle, with the simple 4x4 or 5x5 letter grid, as my favorite, I had some tense matches online playing a more head-to-head variation called Battle Boggle. In this variation, you and your opponent take turns placing letters from your letter stashes on a small grid and spelling as many words as you can from the letters there before letting the other put another letter down. Since the game starts with only one letter on the grid, the first few rounds are mostly spent analyzing your own and your opponent's letters, but after a few more letter cubes have been placed, one player or the other will always burst through with an exciting flurry of words. You both play on separate three-minute timers that only tick while you are on your turn, so you can conserve time and have a lot to play with when the words in the grid are more plentiful. Of course, you never can tell when there's a nine-letter bibliographic behemoth lurking amidst the J's, G's, K's, and Z's; that's what makes the game so tense.

At the end of any of the game variations, you and your opponents (human or computer) have your scores tallied and your word lists displayed onscreen, often spurring a bit of self-reflection as you spy obvious and familiar words on your opponents' lists and curse yourself for your own intellectual shortcomings and sometimes calling up perhaps a moue of incredulity on your lips as you notice something on someone's list that you've never, ever heard of before, and which quite possibly looks like a misspelling of "syzygy" or worse. Here's where a nice touch by Hasbro pays off - every word on every list is clickable and will call up a dictionary-style definition for it, with pronunciation, usage, and multiple definitions. No more arguments!

Solitary word-gamers will enjoy the CD, but most will treat their solo forays into the game as practice for online competition. Computer opponents provide some motivation, but as we all know by now, there's no substitute for the kind of inspiration that can be provided by a sneaky, nerdy 15-year-old bookworm who's kicking your butt from Aardvark to Zygote. If you're going to have fun with this game, you've gotta get online. Whether you do it with a modem, on your local LAN, across the Internet head-to-head, or through Internet Gaming Zone, head-to-head play against human opponents is where Boggle shines. --Lawrence R Edelstein
--Copyright ©1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Does not work on Windows XP, March 2, 2003

By A Customer

Enough said. It used to be fun on Win98.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun for Wordmeisters, January 24, 2000

By	"djdancer" (Michigan) - See all my reviews

I've had a lot of fun with this game, though admittedly, I have not used it for more than just solitary "Boggling". I started out playing Classic Boggle, and was having fun with that til I discovered "In Your Face Boggle"! This is infinitely more challenging, as the cubes are coming up at you as if they were in a well rising to the top, and you are looking down at them from the top. You form as many words as you can before any of them reach the very "top", thus timing you out. I have the most fun just trying to beat my own best score.

There are 3 other variations also, besides the two I've mentioned. I've tried them all, and each one is unique. Way beyond the "Boggle in a Box" that you've known for years!

This CD also allows you to play against other players remotely, by modem or network, though I have not tried that yet.

My biggest complaint about this game is the frequency with which it crashes. Now, that is an exercise in frustration! That being said, I would still buy it again though. I've had many hours of fun with it!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Boggle, November 22, 2001

A Kid's Review

Boggle is a cool game. You try to find words in a puzzle. It's kind of like a word search. It has awesome music that you can choose and neat graphics. You can choose from Battle, Classic, and Space Boggle. You can play by yourself or have up to 4 friends play with you. I like to play this game at home with my friends and family.