Boggle for mobile is based on the board game of the same name, which requires minimal arm strength and a large vocabulary. The mobile version is quite similar to the classic game except that you don't need to physically shake the pieces up, since the game does that for you. Purists might miss getting down and dirty with the shaking, but the stat tracking in this game is so superior, it's an easy trade to make. The only effect of the format change on the gameplay is in the multiplayer, which is more interesting and interactive in the board game. If you're playing alone though, Boggle is a great game on the mobile platform.
Boggle is a word game that presents you with a four-by-four grid of randomly generated letters. Your job is to make as many words as possible (defaulted to a three-word minimum) by selecting pieces that are adjacent to each other (or diagonal) without using the same letter twice. Of course, the number of available words depends entirely on the luck of the board, but as is apparent in Boggle for mobile, there are a surprisingly large number of words that can be made with any randomly generated batch of letters. The gameplay doesn't change much from the board-to-mobile conversion, but the bookkeeping is far superior on mobile. There is a statistics menu that keeps track of information like longest word that you have made and best times you have scored for all the different modes. Even better is that within the game, there is a summary listing that tells you your score and how many words you made of each letter-length out of how many possible options there were. It also lists all the words you made and all the acceptable ones you missed so that you can expand your vocabulary in the process.
There are a few different modes in Boggle, aside from classic, which will give you the opportunity to change up your play style. Challenge mode sets minimum requirements for each level and gives you bonuses for different tasks on each level, such as creating any word that starts with the letter "I." Untimed mode lets you play for as long as you wish, without a time limit, to find all the words on the board. Pass 'n play is a two-player version, where you each get to switch off and try your hand at the board and compare scores after. Boggle's one great shortcoming is in the multiplayer, because unlike in the board game, where players can all play at the same time, in the mobile format, they must take turns, making the game effectively twice as long.
The presentation of the game is sleek and utilitarian. It's easy to navigate through the menus, control the pieces, and quickly facilitate as high a score as possible. Having to select letters by hand, instead of writing them down, might make your scores a little lower than if you were playing the board game, but you can crank up the time limit if this is the case. The sound isn't fantastic, especially since an effect plays on virtually every click of the button, not to mention that they're all pretty typical, which gets old very quickly. However, the game doesn't need sound effects, and everything else about the appearance and function is very well done. If you're primarily interested in playing single-player, you'll find that the options and statistics make the mobile game much more rewarding than the board game.
