Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear…..  Oh wait, that was The Lone Ranger. But if you remember listening to The Lone Ranger on the radio or watching it on TV, then you remember when there were no computers, no iPhones, no iPads, no game players and you may have passed time playing jacks or found paper and pencil and played Hangman.

Well Hangman is back, but of course, in electronic form. After all, we don’t carry around pencil and paper to pass time when we are waiting in line, and we have to have something to do when waiting in line now, don’t we?

There is one thing that is different playing Hangman now than when I was a child. In between that innocent time and now — there was Wheel of Fortune. My mother watched it every day. So now I know that the most used consonants are s, t, n, l, and r. But that doesn’t really spoil the fun because when you are working with lists such as celebrity names, fortune 500 companies, or SAT vocabulary , that fact doesn’t always help.

There are more than a dozen versions of Hangman in the App Store, but Custom Hangman has several elements that most adults will find appealing.

Custom Hangman comes pre-loaded with 20 word lists and there are more that can be downloaded. You can also create your own custom word lists and share word lists with friends. The developer’s web site has complete directions for creating your own custom word lists.

The premise of any Hangman game is trying to guess a word by filling in the blanks. If you choose an “a” all the “a”s in the puzzle are filled in. Each incorrect letter guessed brings you closer to being “hanged.” Although with Custom Hangman there is no actual hanging man. With each miss-guessed letter a pirate moves closer to the edge of the plank. After nine misses he goes into the water and the player loses.

Custom Hangman Play Screen

The colors and actions in this game are clear and clean. There is no cheesy background music. There are two sounds - one if you guess a letter correctly and another if you do not. The sounds can be turned off if the player wishes. There is no time limit so any player, young or old, can play at their own pace. To change word lists a player selects the Menu button in the bottom right corner. To download additional lists the player selects the Manage Word Lists button from the Menu window. If you quit in the middle of a session the game will start back there next time you open the game. More than one player can play simply by passing the phone, iPod or iPad back and forth.

Custom Hangman Word List Menus                                  Custom Hangman List Options

The Bottom Line

This is a simple game that is well designed and easy to play. You have to think to play it. It has clean lines, minimal sounds, and is stable. The ability to add word lists is a bonus feature that gives it a longer life and could be an asset to teachers. I found that it can be addictive as I wanted to play just “one more hand.”

The Basics

Name:  Custom Hangman
Category:  Games
Price:  $.99
Current Version:  1.03
Last Updated: 3/3/2010
Languages:  English
Developer:  Collins Research, Inc.
URL:  http://customhangman.com/ 
Works With:  iPhone, iPod touch and iPad
Requires:  iPhone OS 3.0 >