Scramble 2 by Zynga

Price at time of writing Free-59p (approx $1)

Scramble 2 by Zynga is quite possibly the most popular word app available.

It's a simple "find as many words in a grid as possible" concept. But what makes it stand out is excellent presentation and additional features.

The game itself is, at the moment, free. But I'd advise going for one of the paid options (pathetically small price) to give you a few "Scramble Points" to get you going. Scramble points are accrued the more you play and allow you to unlock new theme backgrounds and achievements to enhance gameplay. With most themes costing a mere 20 points a 100 points game purchase option gives you good variety to start off with.

In options you can choose from a 4x4 grid or 5x5. Most people opt for 4x4 as it makes a good size for competitive online matches.

You can play on your own, challenge a friend with a grid you've played, you can "pass and play" or you can do what most people do and play online against many others.

Zynga claim you can compete against hundreds of others online. That is not a false claim. Many, many, games run at the same time. From hundreds and hundreds of games I have never played a game with less than 20 players, I would say it averages 30-40 and I've played games with as many as 500 competitors.

There's the occasional disconnection from the server but it is very rare in relation to the time spent connected.

You can upload your own custom icon (perhaps a pic of yourself?) If a user has an inappropriate picture all users can report it and it is immediately blanked out and reviewed by Zynga.

Facebook connectivety just adds to a great experience enabling you to compete with your social network Friends.

Each "Theme" has a series of achievements to aim for and there are also other goals to aim for such as long words, and "podium position" awards.

Word selection is either by tapping letters in order and then pressing the final letter twice or by "drag and release". Personally I prefer the first option. The board can be rotated, if you think it may help, by putting two fingers on oppostite diagonal edge letters and twisting clockwise or anticlockwise. This doesn't actually change the order of letters but it sometimes helps to spot a word you've missed.

With 3 minutes available to get as many words as possible from your random grid it's totally addictive button-bashing at it's best. If you get your trophy for 1st place, believe me, you will feel you earned it!

10/10 and available here