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A fun addicting game.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: January 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

My Word Coach for the Nintendo DS is billed as a game that can not only entertain, but also improve the users vocabulary.

First things first.

There are 6 games within this title. They are:

1. Missing Letters
2. Split Decision
3. Pasta Letters
4. Block Letters
5. Word Shuffle
6. Safecracker

These six games are varied and entertaining enough to become close to addicting. They are easy games to learn, and offer enough variety that the games don't feel as though they blend together.

In regards to improving vocabulary. I am not to sure how much improvement there will really be, unless it is a child playing the game. The description says there are 17,000 words I only recall running into duplicate words a couple times. So there seems to be enough variety there as well.

Some have complained about the difficulty for users who are left handed. I didn't find it to be a problem at all. That could very well be a personal thing though.

Overall, I enjoyed this game and found it to be very addictive. I also like the daily score that you need to reach to advance to higher levels. It's a nice touch and encourages people to play. While it may not have the depth in number of words I would have liked. It held my interest and provided hours of entertainment. I recommend this game to the younger crowd, I am not sure how much benefits adults will get out of it aside from fun.

A game & an educational tool second-to-none

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: January 16, 2008
Author: Amazon User

My Word Coach starts out with a welcome screen that allows you to write your name with the stylus. You can store up to two players on one DS cart, so you don't need two buy multiple games if a second person wants to play. When you access your name, it acts as your save file, which you can load up and continue your game. The coach of your choice will give you a "Word for the Week" on the top screen, and you can then choose to play training sessions (in green), progress review options (in red), or tools (in blue). Your coach will either tell you your Success Count (how many you got right) or Expression Potential (how many words you know out of all the words needed to fully express yourself).

Challenges such as Missing Letter, Split Decision, Pasta Letters and Block Letters will challenge your vocabulary skills as you play these games to figure out definitions of words in puzzle form. Once your score is reviewed, you will be notified of your Daily Objective, which is how many correct answers it is recommended you get for the day to improve your vocabulary skills. Once you reach your quota, it's recommended you stop playing for the day and come back the next day to continue your training.

After completing several daily objectives, you will be able to unlock new game challenges that will further test your growing vocabulary skills. It may sound like a lot of work, but it actually ends up being quite fun while teaching you at the same time. The stylus accuracy works well when drawing letters and selecting blocks on the screen. Word puzzle buffs will absolutely get a kick out of this game, and as an educational tool, it's second-to-none. Highly recommended.

5 stars for vocabulary building concept meets DS controls

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: January 16, 2008
Author: Amazon User

While not necessarily a game this vocabulary building software for your DS is more of a daily brain bulding diversion much like a Brain Age.
After several weeks of playing this daily I have unlocked all the single player game modes and all of the available multi player modes. The ability to choose which word lessons you engage in and the initial selection of which character will guide you through the game as your word coach are the only really individualized concepts at work here. However the games ability to determine your vocabulary level is fairly uncanny making it a unique experience for each player and skill level.
The multiplayer word games are fun for more than one and the 15 to 30 mins you will get out of this on a daily basis make the "game" coated educational software go down smoothly. The Wii and DS versions are virtually identical I would say go with the DS version as it has better controls for the writing and letter grabbing games this title offers.

Can you spell, Briefly entertaining?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 6
Date: January 05, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I purchase My Word Coach for my 12 year old son as an educational alternative to the mindless, pointless games that Ninentendo seems bent on making. I had high hopes for this game. I wanted it to challenge my son with fun games while subtly improving his vocabulary. A tall order, I know!

There are three games:

The first reminds me of Tetris. On the right screen, blocks with letters on them fall to the ground and begin stacking up. On the left screen, a list of vocabulary words is offered. The gamer must correctly spell the vocabulary words from the "letter blocks" on the right screen before the blocks stack to the top. This is a fun game but, like all of the games on My Word Coach, it doesn't last long enough nor offer enough of a challenge.

The second game is a fill-in-the-blank type game where gamers must write the missing letter in a word on the screen.

The final game tests the gamers knowledge of word definitions. The player must choose between two different definitions for a single word.

The positive: The games are short, which helps to keep the young player interested while building their confidence. The game seems to recognize a wide range of handwriting. I purposely wrote several letters different ways and the game did an impressive job of correctly recognizing the letters. The tetris game is a lot of fun.

The negative: The games could be a little longer - a few more words would make it more challenging and fun. I also think there should be an option to make each stage a little more difficult. Finally, only three games? I think the clever folks who brought out Animal Crossing and Mario Brothers could think of more than three spelling games. Why not some deviation of hangman wherein the player has to spell the word based on the definition?

No fun, but remarkably well thought out like a well taught class.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 6
Date: January 16, 2008
Author: Amazon User

CON first: I can't help but start out this review by mentioning how needlessly long winded the explanations are, which aren't the least bit helpful or instructional. Even in a live class, if the professor were to prattle on like this the audience would be lost out of boredom and wondering what motivated it. Explain it in the book or on a website, not page after page on the tiny screen.

But there is more on the positive side to say about this software than on the negative.

PRO: This is not a game. While it could be more engaging and enjoyable I have to say it's extremely well done and really does provide a quality evaluation, drilling, and learning experience.

I do not agree that a mastery of word structure or a more sophisticated vocabulary makes for better communication, but in terms of linguistics this is far more than you could expect from a piece of software made for a handheld gaming device. Praise goes to Nintendo of course for creating this subculture of handheld gaming as a learning device--and on the cheap--but the creators of this particular software deserve a lot of credit for the level and quality of the content here.

BOTTOM LINE: While I wouldn't recommend this as fun or agree with the premise that better communication is a matter of greater vocabulary, this is a great piece of software for those who want to develop their ability to understand even unfamiliar words, where it's more about your ability to reckon an answer rather than know it.

I love the fact that it teaches the student to think of the composition of words, because this is a valuable reasoning skill. On the other hand, if you're looking for a fun way to digest this material, it doesn't make the grade.

I recommend it for those serious about improving their linguistic abilities, but don't buy the idea that it will make you a better communicator and therefore do such magical things as increase your income or cause people to listen to what you have to say any moreso than they do currently as it seems to be claiming.

I only take one star away overall simply because I don't agree with the hypothesis, but this is five star work.

Warning: Worst calligraphy ever!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: December 16, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I have not seen writing detection this bad ... well... since ever.
Just try to write an "E" and see what happens.

If I write the capital "E" it will pick it up as "A" or "F" Or "I"

The lower case "e" gets picked up as "z" or "o"

Even brain age had much better recognition this piece of ...
This game might just frustrate the heck out of you!

My Word Coach

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: December 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I am left-handed and I have had no problem playing this game. This was the first game for Nintendo DS that I played and I would recommend it for anyone who is not a serious "gamer" but loves trivia games and challenging themselves! I have only played this game for two days and I feel that I have already learned some great new words!

Valuable Learning Tool

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: December 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is not only a great learning tool, but fun also. Great for anyone who wants to increase their word potential. I'm returning to college after 30 years and found it to be a great tune-up for the papers I am going to be writing.

Worth Buying

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: December 28, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is something everyone should have. It's both fun and entertaining. I love it. You learn new words everyday and you expand your vocabulary, I suggest to give it a try.

Lefties and folks who have trouble reading small print may not be able to use this

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: December 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game looks like a very good one to improve your vocabulary if you're good at using a stylus to write with either hand and can read small print quickly.

Initially, you are encouraged to set up a user profile. That profile helps you to keep track of your score as you work to improve what the game calls your EP or Expression Proficiency.

There are six separate games you can play. One lets you fill in a letter to finish a word. Another lets you pick a word definition from two choices. A third has you spelling words from alphabet soup.

They're all fun. My right handed husband with 20/15 vision does a lot better than I do at every game. Interesting, he'd score a lot less on any verbal test than I do; however, the game is an equalizer.

"My Word Coach" looked like a lot of fun, but I've discovered two significant problems for me as a left-handed person and as a person with some difficulty reading really small print.

First of all, much of the play in this game requires proficient use of a stylus. Many of my errors are due to the Nintendo not recognizing my writing and my inability to clear the screen fast enough.

The blocks game, which is a Tetris-style game where you spell out words to eliminate them from the fall, is on the righthand screen. I kept having to move my left arm to see the words I was having to eliminate which slowed me down and made me drop the game machine once.

In addition, the pasta letter game has a harder version where the pasta letters you need to spell your word sink into the soup. You have to hit either a control key or blow on the DS to make the letters re-emerge. I'm really not sure condensation from a person's breath is a good thing for a DS in the long run.

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