The ultimate alphabet game

This is also backed up with achievements as part of the OpenFeint social gaming network. The Ultimate Alphabet is the result of a real labour of love from UK developer Toytek, with its MD Georgina Mackenzie telling Pocket Gamer that she hope it will appeal to anyone who loves words, art, language and puzzle games.

In terms of the specifics of its release, The Ultimate Alphabet is available for free, which includes access to the letter A. You can also read our interview with Mackenzie about the inspiration behind and the making of The Ultimate Alphabet here. Twitter Facebook Reddit. Gotta name 'em all To discover the complete set, you simply tap on items and then using cryptic clues, hints and jigsaw jumbled words try to work out what they are.

Call Ultimate Alphabet an unidentified-object game. The objects aren't hidden; their identities are hidden. You double-tap on an object, and the game asks you what it is. No points until you've typed the correct word You might think this is easy. You might have forgotten that there are many hundred words per page, and several may apply to any given depiction. Double-tap the large feline on the "C" page, and type CAT. Fine, says the game, now give me seven more words.

Yes, seriously. For each word, the game tells you the number of letters, and offers a cryptic-style British crossword clue. If those stump you, you can ask for an additional hint, which gives you a straight non-cryptic definition.

Beg once more and the game gives you all the letters, scrambled. If you get those in the wrong order, the game will add jigsaw-style coloring to the letters, at which point you have no more excuses; match them up with the background. I bulled my way through the "A" page this way -- using as many hints as I needed. Then I noticed that the game tracks your hint usage. If you solve a word using only the depiction and the cryptic, it's a gold coin. If you ask for the simple definition, silver; if you need the letters, copper.

That got me to apply some discipline, and I worked through "C", "D", and "B" using as few hints as possible. Yes, I did them out of order. I haven't finished "B" yet. And that brings me to my point, which is that this is one tough hidden-object game.

Or hidden-name, or whatever. If you've been avoiding the genre because you think it's for wimps -- well, mostly you're right, but pick up The Ultimate Alphabet. It will not let you off lightly. Allow me to recount. Of the "B" words, I got through perhaps just by looking at the pictures and the cryptics. Then I buckled down ho ho to full-bore solving mode. Anagram server in one window, for the trickier cryptics; Wikipedia in the other. Wikipedia rules. There are sixteen "B" fish in this picture, plus about fifteen flags of "B" countries, twenty-odd "B" birds, and a dozen "B" butterflies.

Without reference materials, you're sunk. That gets me through maybe another hundred words. Then I pull out the heavy artillery: the workbook that came with my original edition of the book.

It lists all the words! Plus red herrings in the "B" chapter. But correlating that word list with cryptics, the pictures, and the Internet I'm up to words solved so far, no hints.

I'd like to get well past before I start begging for help. The cryptic clues aren't great cryptics. To be fair, they were ordered in bulk. Credit to Philip Marlow and Brian Dungate for turning out so many. But they rely on a lot of weird acronyms and letter dropping. I don't even know why "U" is "posh"; maybe it's a British thing. The flip side of that is, you always have the picture and you know the first letter, which makes many of the cryptics easier.

It balances out overall. Oh, yes, fair warning: the art is from Some of those flags are for countries that no longer exist. Adds to the fun, right? Contrariwise, the cryptic clues are current. The game interface has many clever things and some stupid things. I could get into them but let's not. The art is lovely, and takes wonderfully to the zoom-in interface. I can see more detail than I could in the printed edition, so that lays that ebook canard to rest. Yes, you need an iPad; the developer site refers to testing an iPhone edition but I don't see it yet.

But the game offers a one-hour free demo -- glad that sales model has finally penetrated the App Store. They promise the other 24 letters are on their way.