My Word Coach (Wii) Review
My Word Coach from Ubisoft instead of attempting to train your whole brain, seeks to expand only your vocabulary. And as we know, these games are different in style to normal games and are meant to be played in daily, 15-minute sessions over a number of weeks or months. This leads to a real problem when it comes to writing a review. Can a reviewer give an accurate opinion of the game by longer than intended sessions over a couple of days? Thats why this review was originally split into three parts, but here is the entire review!
My Word Coach from Ubisoft is an attempt to capitalise on the extremely successful Brain Training games from Nintendo. Instead of developing your whole brain, My Word Coach seeks to expand only your vocabulary. It does this by setting the player a few simple challenges each day, which test your understanding of different words and how to spell them.
My Word Coach is as far from a traditional style game as its possible to get and, unlike most games which are designed to play out their narrative over a few intensive play sessions, is meant to be played in daily, 15-minute sessions over a number of weeks or months. This leads to a real problem when it comes to writing a review. Can a reviewer give an accurate opinion of the game by playing it intensively over a few days to quickly see everything the game has to offer and then writing up their opinion in a single article?
I dont think thats possible, so instead of a single write-up, this review will be updated at regular intervals with impressions based on a play experience as close as possible to how a person who buys the game would experience it. Think of it as a chronicle of my ongoing experience with My Word Coach. In this way I hope to provide a more thorough review for anyone considering buying the game.
Initial impressions
On starting My Word Coach, anyone familiar with Nintendos Brain Training or Big Brain Academy will feel right at home with a quirky little professor introducing himself and guiding the player through the initial set-up and early challenges. While the content may be different to Nintendos titles, the concept never strays too far, which instantly made me feel like I had played the game before. To me this was a little bit of a turn-off, as after four Brain titles across the DS and Wii from Nintendo, I was hoping for something a little different.
The initial challenge, Missing Letter, asks the player to fill in a blank space in a word by spray-painting the letter on the screen with the Wii-remote. It feels a little bit clumsy at first, but soon becomes an adequate input method. It never feels completely accurate and is definitely not fast enough, but it works well enough to be functional. There are a few issues with letter recognition, but unlike the frustrations most people have with Brain Trainings voice recognition causing wrong answers, the game has a tendency to recognise an incorrect letter as the correct one. Other challenges ask you to match up words with their correct definitions, spell a word from a jumble of letters and guess a word from a short clue. The challenges generally work really well, but the Wii-remote is sometimes not the best way to control them.
Instead of a brain age or brain weight, My Word Coach assesses your expression potential, a score that measures your ability to use the English language. It is a reasonable way of keeping track of your progress, but is not really up to the standards set by Nintendo in Brain Training or Big Brain Academy. Although it gives you some feedback, it never really feels like it is accurately rating your understanding and ability.
The game’s presentation is clean and simple and the menus are easy to navigate. There is plently of voice acting and some simple tunes to keep you entertained.
Overall my initial impressions are mixed, with some control frustrations and a feeling of been there, done that getting in the way of my enjoyment. Some of the challenges are a little lacklustre as well, with some standing out far more than others. I hope as I continue to explore the game, that I will be drawn in and really want to keep improving my expression potential. As it stands, My Word Coach leaves a bit to be desired. It is a reasonably good take on Nintendo’s Brain games, but just lacks that extra element of compelling gameplay that I feel kept me coming back to those titles.
Getting into it
As someone who works with words on a daily basis, I didnt think My Word Coach would have any sort of positive benefit for me. When starting the game, I expected to breeze through the challenges and not gain anything from the experience. Surprisingly, the game has proven to be not only entertaining, but also quite educational, even for someone with a relatively broad vocabulary. I can really see My Word Coach having a very positive effect for younger people, or for those adult players seeking a fun way to expand their grasp of the English language. Nintendos Brain games are more entertaining and better put together experiences, but no matter how many hours I played, I never felt I was really improving my brain or memory in any way. That is where My Word Coach really sets itself apart. It really does have the ability to expand the players vocabulary and have a long-lasting and positive effect.
Unfortunately, controlling the game with the Wii-remote is still one of the challenges facing My Word Coach on the Wii. This is highlighted when the opportunity to use the DS to control Missing Letter becomes available and in other games which require the player to turn the Wii-remote with their wrist, which is an uncomfortable movement and makes it difficult to be precise. In most instances, it would have been better if the controls were changed to take advantage of the Wii-remotes pointing ability.
I am also finding I am caring less and less about the expression potential score, which is disappointing considering one of the best things about this type of game lies in monitoring progress over time. I dont know what it is that is turning me off it, but where my brain age was the driving theme behind Brain Training, keeping me coming back for more, week after week, the expression potential never seems to really matter or provide any great feedback about how the player is progressing.
It is these gripes which are starting to get in the way of me really enjoying My Word Coach. Instead of just being able to sit down for 10 minutes to relax with some great word puzzles, I am finding that the controls are getting in the way of bettering my times and scores. I can also see that since I dont care too much for the expression potential score, it is going to be difficult for the game to keep my interest for a significant length of time.
Final impressions
Now that I have spent a considerable amount of time with My Word Coach, I am glad that I was able to take my time in giving the game a final score. Had I been reviewing it in the same manner as more typical games, I would probably have written it off as little more than a Brain Training clone with nothing more to really add to the genre. Instead, I was able to explore the game more thoroughly and provide a review which is as close to a general consumers experience as possible.
Unfortunately for My Word Coach, the game failed to maintain my interest for a sustained length of time and its faults have caused me to lose interest far sooner than I would have liked. The expression potential score is not functional enough to keep me coming back and the challenges are not varied enough to make me want to play for just one more day. Control issues also affect the players enjoyment, sometimes making the interface seem like a chore rather than the wonderfully intuitive experience the Wii-remote can be for some games. Thats not to say the game doesnt have its bright spots though with a core educational experience that can truly benefit even the best wordsmith and some really entertaining challenges making the game stand out head and shoulders above all other third party brain training pretenders. With a little more variety and some improvements to the control scheme, the game would be able to lift itself up towards the must have category, but as it stands, there are just too many issues present in the core gameplay to sustain the players interest for a prolonged period of time.
Overall, My Word Coach is an above average effort to provide a unique take on the Brain Training formula. It comes closer to capturing the fun and compelling nature of Nintendos groundbreaking titles than any other third party attempt, but some control flaws and a lack of variety cause the player to lose interest too soon. If some of these issues are ever corrected in a sequel, My Word Coach could become a serious contender in the brain training market, but until then, it is a case of what could have been.
