Cost: $25 From: Ways With Words, (800) 488-4537 Players: 1+ Playing Time: 5+ minutes Type of game: Word Skill: 9 Complexity: 2 Reviewed by: Peter Sarrett, Issue 3.2, Spring 1995
Tiles bills itself as a crossword game system rather than a mere game, and I'd have to agree. It includes equipment and rules for over a dozen solitaire and multi-player games. I've not had the opportunity to play the game with anyone else, so this review is based on the solitaire variations.
Inside the stylish black box is a bag full of 72 plastic letter tiles, 24 in each of yellow, green, and red. All the yellow tiles are vowels, all the green tiles are the most common consonants (L, N, R, S, T), and the red tiles are everything else. This grouping of letters is both simple and clever, making it easy to construct games and puzzles tailored to the desired level of difficulty or ensuring that challenges are solvable.
Apair of black plastic trays are specially designed to hold the matching color-coded frames. By flipping and/or rotating these frames, you can create sixteen different crossword patterns which can be combined in over 200 ways. That sounds pretty impressive, but it isn't really— the different patterns increase the possible word combinations, but don't make much difference in actual play.
Tiles suggests over a dozen and a half ways to play, at least twelve of them solitaire. Most of them start by selecting a set of tiles (19 for a hard game, 22 for a moderate game, or 25 for an easy game) distributed evenly across the three colors, with an extra tile coming from the group of your choice. Then you pick a frame position and try to "frame" a solution by filling the crossword pattern with words formed by your tiles.
Four Score is one of the basic games and the one I spent the most time with. The object is to "frame" twenty solutions with four score (80) different words using the same tiles and frame position. This pretty much involves arranging your tiles in the frame until you have four interlocking words, writing those words down, and then anagramming everything to find new solutions. I was surprised to discover how much fun this is. My roommate and I passed a tray back and forth during a televised baseball game, taking turns coming up with solutions and awarding golf claps for particularly nice words.
Ad Infinitum is essentially the same, but with the challenge of framing as many different solutions as you can find instead of just twenty. In Patterns, you keep the same tile selection but try to frame solutions for all sixteen possible frame positions using 64 different words
Some solitaires utilize both trays. Daily Double is a variant for people who like a little mental stimulation with their morning coffee. Start by making a two-frame solution using any of the 72 tiles. Each morning, frame another solution using the same 38 tiles but a different eight words. Keep going one per morning and see how long you can go before running dry.
Perhaps the most interesting solitaire version is Continuum. Another of the "frame as many solutions are you can" school, this one gives you 26 tiles and any number of frame positions. Use 19 of them to form a solution. Next make a 4-7 letter word with the remaining tiles and place it in the other frame. Use the rest of the tiles to make a new solution and then start a third with a 4-7 letter word from the new set of remainders. Keep this going for as long as possible without repeating a word, or try to make a full circle where the remaining word of the last solution is one of the same words from the first.
Ok, enough with the solitaire— what about games for more than one person? Fair Trade offers a crossword solving challenge for two players or teams. Each selects 25 tiles, frames a solution, and discards the remaining tiles. Next, players create definitions for each word in the solution and write them down in alphabetical order of the words they define. Finally, arrange the tiles in alphabetical order and swap trays and definitions, racing to be the first to solve the other's challenge.
If you prefer, you can try Scrimmage. Each player chooses the same number of tiles at random, then races to be the first to frame a solution. Levels is similar: both players start with 25 tiles for the first round. The winner uses 22 tiles in the next round, and if he wins again 19 tiles. The first person to win with 19 tiles wins the game.
Of course, the only limit to what you can do with Tiles is your imagination. Many of the options offered in the rules are merely variations on a theme, but the equipment is certainly rich with possibilities for your own inventions. It's also quite satisfying to fiddle with. Try setting up a frame and just leaving it nearby while you watch TV— it'll make the commercials pass by much faster.