It's alive! Aliiiiiiiive!... or, at the very least, a free word puzzle for your iOS thing by Xether Labs, which is almost as good as the unholy flesh monstrosity you stitched together while playing God achieving sentience. The concept of Frankenword is simple. Using the two word clues onscreen, figure out what bizarre new term you're about to coin by dragging letters into the appropriate spaces from the pool of available options. Once you succeed, you'll be treated to a definition for your new creation that makes a bizarre sort of sense, or be prompted to make your own. You have a limited pool of hints available, though you can earn more by plugging the game on Twitter or Facebook if you're into that sort of thing.

Frankenword is sort of the perfect little party game, practically begging to be passed around a group of people after dinner as an actual physical board game. It'd be a perfect fit, but as it stands, the digital incarnation is still pretty excellent at providing laugh out loud moments when played with a friend. It's exceedingly simple, to be sure, and it's a little disappointing whenever the game asks you to come up with your own definition, since the silly ones provided with the app for the rest of the words are part of the reward. These are the times when the title really showcases how clever it can be, despite its very simple premise and gameplay.

It's easy to sit down and burn your way through the 100 free stages currently available in a short period of time despite a few frustrating stages where the clues don't really feel like they adequately or commonly describe what your solution is supposed to be. An additional whopping 600 stages are available as optional in app purchases, with more free batches planned for future updates. But even if you don't spend a dime on it, if you enjoy casual, silly wordplay Frankenword is one lurching word beast you won't mind encountering.

Frankenword

(iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad)

NOTE: This game was played and reviewed on an iPad (1st gen). Game was available in the North American market at the time of publication, but may not be available in other territories. Please see individual app market pages for purchasing info.