On your search to find entertaining mobile or Xbox games, Quarrel (created by Denki) is one that you could easily pass by.  The concept of battling opponents via clever anagrams will not grab everyone straight away.   In fact, in the early days the game was rejected by almost every games publisher in the world, as Managing Director Colin Anderson explained, Quarrel “was rejected… sometimes twice; occasionally three times.” It was not seen as a viable financial product as gamers traditionally are not big on “word games”.  It must be highly satisfying for the publishers who did pick it up however (UTV Ignition Games), as Quarrel has been named a nominee for the GAME British Academy Video Games Awards 2012 in the “Mobile & Handheld” category.

In my opinion this nomination is highly deserved.  Here’s why.   The game grabs you from the very beginning, and the learning curve is helped along with a  useful tutorial mode.  Essentially the aim of the game is to beat your opponent by making words (like Scrabble) out of 8 letter combinations, and the ultimate goal is to guess the 8 letter anagram.  Now, it turns out I’m terrible at guessing 8 letter anagrams, but I’m great at beating my opponent to the draw with words like “phelgm”.

There are 9 opponents you can choose to battle with, ranging from Dwayne (Word IQ: 100) right up to Kali (Word IQ: 195).  You can also choose to battle just one opponent or a maximum of three, and you have a choice of 4 different playing boards.  That’s all well and good, but then you are also introduced to the strategic moves you can make on each playing board.  The aim, of course, is to completely wipe your opponent off the board, but sometimes doing that is easier said then done.  One wrong move, as I’ve discovered, or failing to “back” your men up on individual tiles, can result in losing the entire game.  But I think this level of strategic thinking is what makes the game so interesting, and ultimately, addictive.  Each time you lose a game you think “I know what I did wrong.  I’m going to try that one again”.

The overall level of detail of the game is impressive, especially when it comes to your little team of word warriors.  You can choose from a range of “troops” to help you battle, from cavemen, GIs, Valkyries, Ninjas, and my personal favourite, the Highlanders (I love their accent).  The music is catchy, the graphics are superb.

It is a “family” game, in that kids love it, and everyone gets a turn.  However just a word of warning to parents.  When you make a word the game will define it at the bottom of the screen at the end of the game.  The game accepts a range of “rude” and sometimes downright hilarious words, and then proceeds to tell you exactly what they mean.  My 8 year old has learnt more “rude” words on Quarrel then anywhere else.

Other people have complained about some of the wacky anagrams that the game comes up with – I have to agree, although you do learn a lot of new words that you may never heard of before (especially playing against the character called Rex).

I’d love to see an update to the game at some stage that includes new opponents, new locations and possibly a multiplayer version.

Rating 8/10 ★★★★★★★★★★