Super Scrabble

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Super Scrabble is a board game that is a variant of Scrabble, first introduced in 2004. In North America it is manufactured by Winning Moves Games, but licensed by Hasbro. In the rest of the world it is manufactured by Tinderbox Games under license from Mattel. At present, Super Scrabble is only available in English.

[edit] Gameplay differences

The tagline, "More spaces, more tiles, more points — add to your fun!", is a good summary of the differences between Super Scrabble and regular Scrabble. The board is larger (21×21 vs. 15×15), there are more premium squares (going up to quadruple letter and the four outer corners containing quadruple word score spaces), and there are twice as many (200) tiles. The middle 15×15 squares are identical to a Scrabble board, so that regular Scrabble may be played on a Super Scrabble board. This also means that all of the high scoring quadruple premiums lie near the outside of the board, with the quadruple word squares at the four corners of the board.

Other than the differences in the board and the number of tiles, gameplay is very much the same as Scrabble. Each player has 7 tiles in their rack as normal, scoring is the same, and the same word lists are used. However, the differences are enough to upset normal Scrabble strategies. For example, the fifty points earned from a bingo (using all 7 tiles) is not nearly as significant when compared to the high final scores (for a 2 player game, scores over 800 points are not uncommon).

Whereas Scrabble is regularly played by 2 players, with many tournament players finding a game with 3 or 4 players cramped, Super Scrabble is intended to be played by 3 or 4 players. Indeed, a 2 player game is quite an endurance match (the scoring sheets included with the game do not even have enough lines to keep score for most 2 player games).

Super Scrabble has exactly twice as many tiles as Scrabble, but the distribution of letters is not simply the regular distribution doubled. The distribution is:

4 "blank" tiles (scoring 0 points)
1 point: E (24), A (16), O (15), I (13), T (15), R (13), N (13), S (10), L (7), U (7)
2 points: D (8), G (5)
3 points: B (4), C (6), M (6), P (4)
4 points: F (4), H (5), V (3), W (4), Y (4)
5 points: K (2)
8 points: J (2), X (2)
10 points: Q (2), Z (2)

Note, for example, that there are more than twice as many S's (regular Scrabble has 4). This was done to make more opportunities for plurals, making Super Scrabble a very high scoring game although largely to the discontent of most 'purists' (especially club and tournament players) who felt that the distribution should not have been modified.

[edit] Strategy

Premiums play a larger role in Super Scrabble, due to both the presence of quadruple letter and word scores, and also because near the edge of the board, double word scores are spaced closely together, making it much easier to score a "double-double" (compare to Scrabble where a 7 letter word is required to score a double-double). In addition, opportunities for bingos are increased due to the 3 extra squares in each direction. For the same reason, hooks can play a larger part in strategy.

Certain high scoring words, such as words with doubled Z's (e.g. FUZZ, JAZZ, DAZZLE) that are impossible to make in Scrabble without using blanks, can be played. With quadruple letter scores spaced only 3 squares away from a double word score, it is not uncommon to see a single play score over 100 points, even without a 50-point bonus. Guarding against such plays becomes vital to strategy. However, due to the larger size of the board, this becomes increasingly difficult, especially late in the game.

Super Scrabble is only currently available in English and no deluxe version (turntable, lock-in grid) has yet been released.