Have fun with words

Wordsmiths, get ready: There’s a new game in town. Alphabear is a fun word game featuring adorable bears that grow when you nourish them with good words. Letter tiles are arranged — a la Scrabble — around a bear and are worth different points. Depending on the letters you pick, your bear expands to fit the space, sometimes resulting in comically wide or cone-headed characters. The bigger the bear, the more points you can score, and the aesthetics add a nice level to the game.
If you leave a letter unused for too long, it can turn into a rock and keep your bear from growing. You can also find rare bears as you play, which have powers such as earning you score boosts when you use certain letters. There are in-app purchases in Alphabear. As with many mobile games, you run out of fuel — in this case, honey — after playing and need to either pay or wait to regenerate your supplies. But it’s possible to play without spending real-world cash, and this little game is a fun way for language lovers to stretch their brains. Free, for Android.