Once a word has been identified, unlike when playing Boggle, the letters are removed from the board and replaced by fresh ones. Also, any time a word of four letters is pointed out, you get a random combo square – if you can use the letter on this square to make a word, bonus points are awarded.
There are options in the menu for customizing settings, and there are a number of modes of gameplay that you can choose from. The Untimed, Relax, Lightning, Hard, and Normal modes vary in the amount of time allotted to you for play. If you play in Blocker mode, you’ll experience a randomly-placed square that keeps you from being able to identify words, and every time you find a word the square appears in a different place.
It’s also possible to customize the dictionary, theme, and size of the board. Each of the themes – Sand, Marble, and Wood – give the game a totally different appearance. The default theme is Wood, and it’s a good one to go with – in the other available themes the letters can be a bit hard to read. When it comes to the dictionary, you are given the options of using either Webster’s or the Scrabble dictionary; or you can choose to use both of them, which is the default setting. A lot of purists will probably want to stick to using just the Scrabble dictionary, as there are a number of proper nouns included in Webster’s.
With the addition of just a few more much-needed features, Word Drop could be a truly spectacular, essential app. The biggest drawback is that there is no option that allows you to play in competition with friends. Another problem is that there isn’t any way of setting the time limits manually, although you do have a certain amount of control via the settings for difficulty level. These drawbacks don’t prevent Word Drop from being entertaining and fun, but they would take it to another level.