What you need to know about Scrabble flash cubes
Scrabble Flash Cubes is a new version of the world’s most popular word game. While some classic Scrabble lovers enjoy the texture of the wooden tiles, supports, and smell of the board, a whole new generation of players is likely to develop an affection for the feel of the new cubes and their flashing lights.
The classic game may owe its popularity to the way it connects with language. Writing can be seen as a code that uses symbols or letters to represent meaningful sounds. This fundamentally wonderful code is the basis of the board game.
Each player draws seven tiles, each with a letter and a value attached to that letter. The goal is to build legitimate words, adding to what other players have already done. When some squares are covered, they can produce letter scores or double words. The letter ‘x’ has a score of ten, so if the word ‘ox’ is used to cover a triple score with this letter, the letter score is tripled and so is the word score.
The traditional board game is played with two or more players. At least one other person is required, and also a large, rigid board and a flat surface.
On the contrary, the new flash game can be played alone and no board is required. The game consists of independent electronic cubes that light up when placed next to each other to form a word. In fact, each cube could be thought of as a small computer that electronically interfaces with other cubes when a word pattern has been made.
The old game was often slow. While the players took turns mulling over possible letter combinations, the others could get bored. Some got up and made tea, while others moved and kicked and finally gave up. This drawback made the game more suitable for older couples who had entire nights at their disposal.
The new game may be more suitable for younger players ages eight and up, children, and adults. Sixty second time limits may be imposed on the creation of new words. Once the time limit has been reached, the cubes light up and calculate the individual’s score.
This is fundamentally different from the old game. The Need for Speed possibly derives from another word game called ‘Boggle’, which used to require rapid word formations from a casual roll of the dice.
In classic Scrabble, much of the appeal is in the time spent working through the possibilities and calculating the best score that can be obtained under given circumstances.
As a gift, flash cubes will be more appropriate for grandchildren than grandparents. It could be particularly valuable as a way to occupy young travelers in the back seat of a car on the way to family vacations.