Last updated on December 14th, 2025 at 06:09 am
Up Spell by Up Games – Word Game Review
Up Spell by Up Games is a Word/Puzzle game from Kenneth Kocienda, first launched in 6th October 2020.
It’s rated 9+ and currently has 71+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Up Spell by Up Games Stand Out
A fast-paced word game.
This Word game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Up Spell by Up Games is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 6th September 2022
Recent improvements include:
Four new color themes. Additions to the lexicon.
Download & Availability
Up Spell by Up Games is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Up Spell by Up Games on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Perfect for a quick escape during the day. Simple, clean design and delightful music. Continues to be one of our favorite games that we come back to.
We like this game a lot. Scratches the Wordle itch between new words. One complaint: sometimes we get no vowels. Is this a feature or a bug? We get that this can happen in Scrabble, for instance, but then you have a whole board to play on. The session we just finished we went with DR which counted as a word, then we got a vowel. If this is intended we gotta say it feels a little broken. But the game is great. Everyone who likes Wordle should check it out.
This is a delightfully addictive game, with a simple, effective design.
Lots of fun. Superb implementation.
Very addictive. A great game to play in free moments. Definitely some words missing, but the developer is open to adding more. Definitely recommend if you like word games.
We love this game. Great lexicon, neat interface which is sympathetic to our poor vision. But..we can't get Duel to work. We can't get the Send arrow to work.
ITS A BEAUTIFUL GAME! SIMPLISTIC, FUN Sadly no options to: Increase character amount Increase Time Missing some words. Example: Grok is a word (game does not recognize it) (These are not our reasons for 3 star ) DEVELOPMENT OVERSIGHT: (our reason for 3 star instead of 5) Unfortunately, we have no idea why the developer ignored logic in their mind and DID NOT consider: 500 million iPads apple mentioned, sold world wide your game WILL be played on an iPad. Therefore, why not make sure the game shows up correctly on iPad screen? We have a 129 inch iPad Pro, in landscape mode, launching this game, you press the 2x button for the game to blow up and cover the entire screen (fair enough) heres where the developer did not do, their due diligence: The game appears at the bottom left edge of the screen, dangerously close, to bleeding out the edge of the screen. (making it uncomfortable to play) we do some some development ourselves, there is a iOS screen simulator which you can run in xcode, showing approximation of how game will appear on the various iOS screens. Developer was obviously focused on iphone only. Sadly, singular thinking like this, diminishes the perception of the passion, involved in this project. Especially, in this current age, when the development tools are available for the dev, to assist them, and make sure, game is running at its best viewing angles, for all iOS device screens.
Playing a word game with two hands is less appealing. It needs portrait mode. Otherwise its pretty fun.
Its fun, but the letter selection doesnt seem well randomized. Sharing doesnt work. Just get a blank screen and have to quit the app.
It would be a great free app. With interstitial ads. But paying $2 for this simple app was too much. Our main complaints: 1. You can only play in horizontal mode 2. You can not play against strangers or a leaderboard or anything. You either have to invite your friends or just try and beat your high score (which should be displayed along with current score after every game) 3. When you put up letters that dont make a word you have to hit the down arrow to clear them. The down arrow is placed in an inconvenient spot and if you hit it twice fast because youre speeding, it trashes your letters. Slowly.
The app automatically compressed after upgrading apple system and wont fix.
Up Spell is ducking fun. Id give it another star if only it were written in Swift but alas… Good work, Ken.
This is a super addicting word game. We think it would be cool if the dev could add a post game screen that showed your highlights for that game. Highest scoring word, oddest word, etc.
Love this game but agree that it should show highest scored game and Game Center integration. Play this for hours (while sitting and waiting). Nice work.
Im really enjoying the game, one thing Id love to see added would be some kind of endless mode. We like just getting into the zone and dont want the game to end at two minutes.
The app is pretty bare bones and should allow one to review the very fast-paced game. It would be nice to be able to review the letters and the words formed from them after the fact. It would also be nice to be able to replay a game both before and after reviewing. It would also be nice to be able to play without a clock. And it would be nice to be able to see ones scores, not merely the top score. We hope to see these areas improved in future updates, but encourage you to get the game as it isits addicting.
This game wasn't for us, but we think it executes on its intentions well. It's a very fluid and responsive game; sessions are quick, the animations are tight and it gives nice Taptic feedback. However, we got frustrated by the letters we'd get, often with only one vowel and lots of duplicate letters. We might just be very bad at this game but it left us feeling stuck during games and ultimately made the game seem more like a task than a fun game. It is good at what it is but just isn't quite for us.
We use our iPhone with voiceover since we are visually impaired. Well, the game is inaccessible to us. We would appreciate if developer would put effort into making it accessible.
Does the game keeps stats anywhere? That seems like a key feature thats missing from an otherwise nearly perfect game.
Its really a wonderfully addicting app. We have two suggestions for the developer (and these really are nits Im picking): 1. It isnt obvious or apparent when you are getting a double score for a word; maybe the background of the board could change color to denote this? 2. The high score isnt shown anywhere, except when you get a score close to it.
This game scratches the itch. Details abound, no surprise given the developer. No in app purchases mean you pay once and enjoy the game forever. Kudos, this gane is done right.
Right now we ask someone to duel, play, and then… Nothing? We have to share our score again to compare? If we forget to share immediately after the game and switch to another app (messages, for example) the score goes away? Id rather play solo for a bit and wait for that feature to be smoothed out.
This game immediately became our have 5 mins to kill alternative to doomscrolling or other online activities. The perfect blend of quick game, with brain usage and can be close to done at any moment when the queue in front of you at the grocery opens up again.
It's a really fun game, just needs a high score board (and ideally Gamecenter integration so you can compare scores with your friends).
Reminds us a bit of Spelling Bee from The NY Times. Great design and great soundtrack, but no way to see our previous scores?? Am we missing something.
This is a great, fast-paced word game for those who enjoy Scrabble, Boggle, Bananagrams or similar (and works great solo). The expanded lexicon is an interesting twist for those who have gotten used to more narrow ones from other games. We did encounter an issue where, after using earbuds once with the game, we now cant get audio at all. Also, we wish it had more stats about your best words, your biggest missed opportunities, maybe some other tendencies that you have, etc. Those might be nice additions in the future, but even as it stands its well worth the $2 for anyone who loves word games.
Would appreciate proper iPad support.
The different values for different letters is a nice additional dimension. But we cant seem to successfully play with anyone else. The text message with the link to the game isnt being created and sent properly.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.0.3
- Size: 14.81 MB
- iOS: 13.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor
- Developer: Kenneth Kocienda
Last updated: 6th September 2022 | Genre: Word, Puzzle | Developer: Kenneth Kocienda