Gubbins

Game
    Review

Gubbins (2023) is a puzzle game where you place tiles to construct words with the help (and hindrance) from weird creatures called Gubbins. Play is a combination of Solitaire and Scrabble as you are both battling to score word points, but also make matches to clear space.

As you play you discover the different abilities of the 25 Gubbins. Like the Mushroom that spawns other Gubbins, the Lemon that adds 4 letters to adjacent spaces or the Skateboard that moves tiles to a random space on the board.

Because each level is generated fresh, it's similar to a roguelite where you try and try again and each time it's slightly different. This also means that the possible words you can use to score points aren't predetermined. You can use both your vocabulary and strategy to figure out how to maximise your tiles and your Gubbins.

The result is a game that not only looks unusual but offers an experience unlike other word games. It's geographical as well as lexicological if you don't mind us testing our vocabulary for a minute.

Our examiner, Jo Robertson, first checked Gubbins 14 months ago. It was re-examined by Andy Robertson and updated 3 weeks ago.