Say Hello To Scrablatro
When you hear that there is a new game from legendary developers Steve Ellis and David Doak, who you may know from games such as GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark, amongst others, you probably won’t be expecting Beyond Words. This is a Scrabble-like game that is clearly inspired by Balatro, but it quickly proves to be one of the most compelling word-based games I’ve played in a long time.
I wasn’t sure what Beyond Words was going to be when I first laid eyes on it. That’s because, at first glance, it appears to be just a video game version of the classic board game Scrabble. At its most simple level, you place tiles to create words that award a specific score depending on the letters used. Once you dig a bit deeper, you’ll find that Beyond Words has so many layers and is actually structured much more like the poker-inspired video game Balatro.
This is because Beyond Words has you placing tiles to reach certain score goals each round, but to help you achieve these scores as they grow, you will need power cards, which act like the Jokers in Balatro. These cards do a variety of different things, from adding multipliers to your score to increasing the base score of specific letters, and more.
Completing a round earns you coins, which you can then spend in the shop on power cards or booster packs. Keep in mind that booster packs are single-use items to help you in a run, from adding more vowels to your rack of letters to increasing the base level of various word lengths. They can be crucial to a successful run, but sometimes it’s worth saving them for a while.
In Beyond Words, you can also skip rounds for temporary buffs, just like how you could skip blinds in Balatro. Just be careful, because boss rounds can be really tough if you haven’t earned enough coins to get power cards and boosters in the previous rounds.
One truly unique element of Beyond Words that caught me off guard initially was its different board designs. Anyone who has played Scrabble knows just how important the board itself can be, and here in Beyond Words, that is more true than ever before. You get boards with multiple starting locations you can use, and boards with letters or words already placed on them, while giving you unique tiles that can add bonuses to words when they are scored.
Having a different board to play on feels somewhat similar to playing with a different deck in Balatro, but the variety of board designs in Beyond Words is much greater than the number of decks in Balatro, and I’m still in the early game. Once I’ve spent hundreds of hours with Beyond Words, like I did with Balatro, I won’t be shocked if I have found even more board variety, let alone game-changing power cards.
If you’re a fan of word-based games of any kind, then Beyond Words is absolutely a must-play. It’s an experience that I will continue playing for hundreds of hours. While Balatro’s ‘lightning in a bottle' success might not be replicated here, it does provide that similar rush when a round goes your way and you feel like an absolute god. With all that in mind, it’s impossible not to recommend it to everyone who likes these deckbuilding roguelike-style games.
Developer - MindFuel Games
Publisher - PQube
Released - March 5th, 2026
Available On - PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, PC
Rated - (E) - No Descriptors
Platform Reviewed - PC
Review Access - A review code for Beyond Words was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
I’m Jordan I have a background in game design and am deeply passionate about accessibility in gaming. My favourite games/franchises include Shenmue, Red Dead Redemption 2, Plague Tale: Requiem, Metal Gear Solid 3, Yakuza, Splinter Cell, and Assassin’s Creed.