From the Dark Side
by Tiny Ruisch
I like word games. If you’ve read any of my game reviews, you’ve probably noticed that I start a lot of them with those same four words. Red Herring is a word association game that is different than most others.
The object of the game is to slide the word tiles into one of the three category columns. Each puzzle has only one correct solution. There is no time limit for finishing the game. The difficulty in the game comes from the fact that many of the words fit in more than one category. Each puzzle has four extra “red herring” words that also fit into the categories.
To play the game, drag a word tile and drop it on another tile to swap them. When four categorically matching tiles line up vertically, they’ll lock into place, with the category revealed at the top. There are three modes of play. In the easy mode, you start with the category headings and the positions of five of the tiles revealed. In the normal mode, the categories are hidden. In the hard mode (which I’ve been playing) there is nothing revealed at the start of the game. If you get stumped on a difficult level, you can always restart the level with an easier difficulty.
The base game comes with one puzzle pack of 50 grids for free (as well as ten free hints). You can purchase additional puzzle packs and unlimited hints with in app purchases. You can view a 47 second video on the official website.
Red Herring was developed by Blue Ox Technologies Ltd. They also have produced one of my favorite word games, 7 Little Words, which I reviewed in the April Newsletter. Although I like this game a lot, I doubt if I will keep it after I finish the 50 free puzzles. After a while it gets a little repetitive. When you get stumped, it is just too tempting to restart in an easier mode and finish the puzzle.
You can download Red Herring from the Google Play Store.