GUBBINS: That is All

As a rule, I don’t like mobile games. There’s something about my pretentious nature that stops me from enjoying mobile games. Maybe it’s the endless amount of spyware or micro-transactions found in many mobile games. Maybe it’s because I’m a crotchety old man who doesn’t like change. It could also be because I prefer to play my games on a TV or handle a device with buttons.

So many mobile games either require more money to keep playing or are not designed with hardware limitations in mind. Who wants to touch fake buttons on a glass screen to control a character?

I rarely play mobile games because according to my experience, they are rarely good. But GUBBINS rules.

GUBBINS is Great

GUBBINS is a word game developed by Studio Folly. The rules are simple: make words using a random stack of letters. That’s it. Except mixed in with the letters are GUBBINS, little creatures that cause mischief or are helpful. Some GUBBINS offer the player an advantage – return a row of letters back to the word bank, add an ING anywhere on the board, or fill in a word with any letter. Bad GUBBINS harm the player’s goals by creating obstacles they have to work around.

Actual Strategy

One thing I love about GUBBINS is you can choose the GUBBINS you want. It gives players strategic options they can make to tailor the game to what they want to play and create combos that fit their play style. It’s not just making words – there’s more choice than letters.

Art Direction

The art direction of GUBBINS is beautiful. Wonderfully colorful and thoughtfully cute. Every Gubbin has a unique look that gives each of them an interesting personality. The thunderbolt’s side eye, the pencil’s silly stride, the magnet’s weird fingers.

The entire game is dripping with a cohesive art direction that is hard to find any fault with. It’s gorgeous, it’s fun, and it’s cute.

Daily Driver

I fall off mobile games quickly. They don’t stick around for long, and those that do become occasional plays. GUBBINS has a built-in daily mode. Every day, the game is different, and everyone gets the same challenge and letters.

Some of these challenges are very clever. For example, there are a lot of challenges that are letter-themed. When the game starts most of the board will be covered by a giant letter that is made up of the same letter. Other challenges will have an unjumbling puzzle to them or some preset GUBBINS on the board to mess with things.  

I prefer the unjumble and preset daily challenges to the letter challenges, but it doesn’t matter much if you’re comparing scores. Which is something my wife and I have been in the habit of doing daily.

Relaxing

One thing I don’t want while pooping is stress. Because GUBBINS takes a relaxing approach to word games, I can play it whenever. Before bed, when I wake up, during my lunch break, etc. It won’t raise your heart rate and often the decisions are cut and dry. 

You’re going to love it. Check it out.