Putting a unique twist on the genre, some games seek to challenge icons like Scrabble and establish themselves as the best word games around.

Scrabble is one of the best-known word games out there. Players must create words on a board in a crossword-style grid using letters they draw from a letter pool. While Scrabble has sat at the top of the word-game popularity pyramid, there are other great word-based games that deserve a chance to shine.

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Not every word game is based on constructing words from single letter tiles. The most creative ones have players working together in teams to guess specific words or build sentences that will cause laughing fits. Whichever version ends up on the table, wordsmiths of all sorts will find something that suits their vocabulary tastes.

Bananagrams is fun, frantic at times, and remains a great exercise in imaginative vocabulary. Similar to Scrabble, this game proves much more spontaneous and portable. Players form words in a connecting grid pattern from their pool of letter tiles, trying to use up all the letters they can.

There is also a community letter pool, called a "bunch" to exchange tiles from should the players get stuck. Words can be altered and shifted in the grid pattern to make new words as additional letter tiles are acquired.

Tick-Tock Boom is a fast and frantic word game that forces players to come up with words on the spot. While a player holds the bomb, they draw a card with three letters on it. The player must then think of a word that uses all three letters before they can pass the bomb to the next person.

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If the timer runs out before a player can think of a word, the bomb explodes and that player loses. A pressure-filled exercise in vocabulary, Tick-Tock Boom provides loads of fun for quick-witted players.

Quiddler is a lot of fun for wordsmiths and vocabulary aficionados. Players are challenged to create words from an increasing number of letter cards in their hands. Players start the game with a draw of three cards, but the number of cards drawn goes up by one after each round for up to eight rounds.

Each player must draw a new card and try to make a word of at least two cards per hand. Points are awarded based on the value of each card. The real gamble comes when players try to create longer words in each round by waiting it out, hoping to get a higher score.

Mad Gab is a game that's more about what players hear than what they say. Players take turns trying to get their teammates to guess the actual phrase on a card they draw by speaking it aloud. The phrase on the card might be "Bat Tree Snot Ink Looted" which when said aloud, should sound like the answer "Batteries Not Included."

There are versions of the game that include plastic mouth inserts that separate the lips and keep the mouth opened, like a dental apparatus. This makes it harder for players to speak, but possibly easier to understand. They also make the game more hysterical.

In Boggle, players shake up a grid full of letter cubes to randomize their placement. Once the cubes settle, the timer begins and players must find words by connecting letters on the grid. Letters must touch each other to form a word. Big Boggle adds an extra row of letters on each side of the grid for a total of 25 letters.

The extra letters allow for more word creativity and discovery. Big Boggle is simple, portable, and competitive, as players compare what words they found with each other, tallying up high scores based on the number of words they discover.

In Codenames, players are divided into teams, and each selects their team leader. An assortment of cards with words and a hidden color are then spread around the table and organized into a grid. The leader must get their team members to pick the correct word cards by giving them clues as to which cards should be selected.

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The game relies on players having the same train of thought when looking at and associating words. Not only must each team outsmart the other, both must keep avoid the assassin card lurking among the deck. Codenames also has several themed versions including Marvel, Harry Potter, and The Simpsons.

Taboo is another game more about word association than building or spelling words. It plays similar to Codenames as a "Giver" player tries to get their team to say as many keywords on a card as possible. The Giver can't use the keyword, and in a unique twist, they must avoid any of the associated "Taboo" words on the card when giving clues.

Giver turns rotate as the game progresses, so each player gets a chance to offer the clues. Points are awarded for each correct guess and subtracted for each taboo word uttered. The team with the most points wins.

In Catchphrase, players pass around an electronic disc with a screen that has over 5000 words and phrases loaded on it. The player holding the disc must get the group to say the word on the screen by giving clues connected to that word. Once the group figures out the word, the player passes it to the next person.

Adding to the tension of the game, there's a timer that beeps faster as it counts down. The player holding the disc when the timer goes off loses. Catchphrase is great fun, especially when it gets stressful. Nothing says fun like mad shouting and frantic guessing.

Dirty Words is a dice game where players must create as many correct sentences as they can in the allotted time. Players begin by rolling all 23 dies and tipping the timer to begin. ​​​​​​

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Players must use the face-up words to create sentences and each sentence must connect to others at one or multiple points, like a crossword. Points are tallied for each dice used at the end of the timer, and the winner is the player with the most points.

Cards Against Humanity is an extremely over-the-top, outrageous, and often politically incorrect game of fill-in-the-blank. Each player, in turn, places a blanks card on the table. The remaining players must use a card or cards from their hand to fill in the blanks.

The player who initially placed the blanks card gets to choose the winner, and the player who wins the most blanks card at the end wins the whole game. Cards Against Humanity is filled with all sorts of pop culture and historical references, and the expansions available offer even more ridiculous fun.

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Chris is a Freelance Writer with CBR. He has a Professional Writing Degree and has published two books: "The Shakespeare Folio" and "Cottage Country: A Haiku Collection". He worked as a PlayStation rep for six years, has been an avid gamer across all platforms for over twenty years and loves to delve into manga, new anime series and the occasional comic book run.

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