Hangman RSS review - a new fun way to play Hangman and read the news

Courtesy of Finger Arts

Finger Arts, the same developer that created Guess the News, is back with an all new, creative way to read the news called Hangman RSS.

Gameplay is virtually the same, in that players are presented with a daily news headline that is missing a word or three (depending on the difficulty), and they must try to figure out the missing words by selecting the array of letters at the bottom of the screen. However, this time, instead of racing against a clock and a steadily depleting bar, players strive for accuracy to save a stick figure from a hangman's noose. With each wrong letter, a piece of the stick figure will appear, just like in traditional pen-and-paper hangman games.

Since the game structure is quite different, the Hangman aspect isn't the only change to the game mechanics. For example, there is no level progression punishment for taking your time in completing the words since there is no clock-ticking achievement bar. However, the amount of points you can earn will slowly tick down the longer you take, so there is still an incentive for completing the puzzle as quickly as possible. As a result, the harder difficulties will unlock once you complete a certain number of puzzles on one difficulty instead of checking your point percentages from the bar.

Also, unlike Guess the News, you can only sort out one word at a time, so selecting the letter "E" will not find its place among all the missing words. Once one word is done, the letter tiles refill and you must start anew. While that seems to be a huge annoyance, especially since you can only pick seven wrong letters, the developers tossed in a set number of letter hints for each difficulty level to make it not as overwhelming. I used these hints to start me off on a new word if I had no clue what it could possibly be in the flow of the headline, which was a life saver (literally) of a strategy most of the time. In addition, Hangman RSS includes a long list Open Feint achievements for players to show off their scores to Open Feint friends or just obtain extra incentives for playing 200 rounds of Hangman.

Once you have all the Hangman action you can handle, you can read all of the news stories of the headlines you played with. Since the game incorporates daily headlines, every day presents a new set of puzzles as well new news stories to read, which makes the game well worth its $1.99 price tag.

Hangman RSS surpasses Guess the News in virtually every way, especially with elimination of the frustration of keeping the achievement or completion bar full. It's undoubtedly one of the more original and more fun word games in the App Store, and I love the fact that I receive a whole new set of headlines to play with each day. If you aren't a fan of word games or even Hangman, this game will most likely not appeal to you even with its original concept of using daily news headlines. But for the rest of you word game lovers, do yourself a favor and check out Hangman RSS.