is a series of Japanese

word puzzle Word games (also called word game puzzles or word search games) are spoken, board, or video games often designed to test ability with language or to explore its properties. Word games are generally used as a source of entertainment, but can add ...

video games developed and published by

Bandai Namco Entertainment is a Japanese multinational video game video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Entertainment America and Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe, are respectively headquartered in ...

, formerly

Namco was a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Na ...

. The series began in arcades with ''Kotoba no Puzzle: Mojipittan'' in 2001, and has seen multiple sequels for several platforms, including the

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2 ...

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...

and

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...

. Gameplay is similar to ''Scrabble'' — players are tasked with using

Hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' literally means "flowing" or "simple" kana ("simple" originally as contrast ...

to form words on a board by placing down pieces marked with Hiragana characters. The original ''Kotoba no Puzzle'' was designed by

Hiroyuki Goto recited pi from memory to 42,195 decimal places at NHK Broadcasting Centre, Tokyo on 18 February 1995. This set the world record at the time, which was held for more than a decade until Lu Chao beat it in 2005. He is a game designer at Namco. H ...

, who is well known in Japan for being able to recite pi from memory to 42,195 decimal places, making him the world record holder at the time. Likely due to its strong usage of Japanese, the series has remained confined to Japan. The ''Kotoba no Puzzle'' series was met with positive reviews from critics, being praised for its originality, multiplayer and addictive gameplay, with ''Kotoba no Puzzle: Mojipittan DS'' receiving the "Gold Hall of Fame" award from ''

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...

''.

Gameplay

''Mojipittan'' is similar in play to the

word game Word games (also called word game puzzles or word search games) are spoken, board, or video games often designed to test ability with language or to explore its properties. Word games are generally used as a source of entertainment, but can add ...

Scrabble ''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, read left t ...

''. The player uses tiles with

hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' literally means "flowing" or "simple" kana ("simple" originally as contrast ...

to build words. The player may take turns against the computer or a human opponent or play alone. Unlike ''Scrabble'', however, each player may place only one tile per turn as opposed to multiple tiles in the former. Tiles must be placed next to any other tile on the board, space permitting, but at least one word must be formed with each tile placed; as long as these conditions are met, a tile may be placed anywhere on the board, even if not all of the other tiles a new tile is connected to form new words. A major difference in how the game plays in contrast with ''Scrabble'' is that words do not need to be isolated. For example, in the play pictured above, with the bold letter う (''u'') being played, in addition to つうか (''tsuuka,'' either 通過, meaning "passing", or 通貨, meaning "currency"), つう (通 or ''tsuu'', meaning "connoisseur") and うか (羽化 or ''uka'', meaning "eclosion") qualify as words. The horizontal words that qualify in this play are ふつう (普通 or ''futsuu'', meaning "normal"), つうち (通知 or ''tsuuchi'', meaning "notification"), and うち (内 or ''uchi'', meaning "inside"), as well as つう again. Forming multiple words with the placement of a single tile is termed a "chain". Stages have objectives such as "fill all the spots on the board", "create twenty words over three tiles long", or "create chains of three, eight times". The board always has pre-existing tiles that players have to work with.

Games in series

* (2001, Arcade) * (2003,

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

) * (2003,

Wii U The Wii U ( ) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo as the successor to the Wii. Released in late 2012, it is the first eighth-generation video game console and competed with Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4. The W ...

Virtual Console A virtual console (VC) – also known as a virtual terminal (VT) – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, BSD, illumos, Unix ...

) * (2004.

) * (2007,

) * (2008,

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...

) * (2009,

Nintendo DSi The is a dual-screen handheld game console released by Nintendo. The console launched in Japan on November 1, 2008, and worldwide beginning in April 2009. It is the third iteration of the Nintendo DS, and its primary market rival is Sony In ...

) * (2010,

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

, Android) * (2020,

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

, Android, iOS,

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

)

Spin-off games

* (2005, i-appli) * (2007, i-appli) * (2019, iOS)

Board game

A board game adaptation called was made by Mega House under Bandai Namco's license and released in 2007.

Reception

On release,

scored ''Mojipittan DS'' a 33 out of 40 (9/8/8/8).Weekly Famitsu No.953 March 23, 2007 Page 40

Notes

References

{{reflist

External links

Official Japanese website
PlayStation 2 games Bandai Namco Entertainment franchises Nintendo DS games DSiWare games Game Boy Advance games Japan-exclusive video games PlayStation Portable games WiiWare games Wii Wi-Fi games Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection games Touch! Generations Video games developed in Japan