The worldwide sudoku craze appears to be fading -- if electronic versions of the number-logic game are any indication. Since 2005 I've seen dozens of sudoku games for consoles, handhelds, computers and cell phones. On the schedule for 2008 are none. I gave into the fad for a while, in much the same way I got hooked on "Tetris," "Minesweeper" or "Bejeweled." But now that I've achieved a reasonable skill level, it feels like there's not much more to see. I've put aside sudoku and returned to my old two-crossword-a-day puzzle regimen. I'd love to see more video games based on word puzzles, and I think there's an audience out there. Casual gamers have made modest hits of PC games such as "Bookworm" and "Text Twist," while the Facebook crowd has turned "Scrabulous," a Scrabble knockoff, into a phenomenon. Majesco did a terrific job last year translating "The New York Times Crosswords" to the Nintendo DS. And a handful of publishers are taking chances on new games that appeal to word mavens. LOU KESTEN, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Like last year's "Puzzle Quest," which deftly combined "Bejeweled" and role-playing, "WordJong" mixes two old favorites: Scrabble and mah-jongg. It isn't as satisfyingly deep as "Puzzle Quest," but makes for a nice 10-minute diversion.

Each screen presents the now-familiar pile of mah-jongg tiles, decorated with letters instead of symbols. You can use any tiles that are unblocked on the left or right, but instead of matching images you're forming words. You get bonus points for words that are longer than five letters or use less common letters such as Z and X. To complete a puzzle you need to remove all the tiles -- which often means settling for shorter words to balance your remaining letters.

"WordJong" serves up one fresh puzzle every day, or you can take on the "Temple Challenge," a series of increasingly difficult layouts. You can play in turns against a computer player or another human. "WordJong" has been available for computers and cell phones, but the DS stylus, idealclicking tiles, makes this version the best.

The "Coach" series (available in French and Spanish versions) is closer in spirit to Nintendo's "Brain Age" titles. Bearing the imprimatur of a Canadian linguistics professor, it's designed to improve your vocabulary through a series of simple yet amusing exercises.

Some of the games involve spelling: You may be asked to fill in one missing letter or unscramble an anagram. Others involve matching words to their definitions. In the most pointless exercise, you're given a list of words which you have to duplicate by clicking on blocks.

Your speed and accuracy determine your "expression potential," which suggests a career path, and I found it amusing that "journalist" ranks below "motivational speaker." I wish "My Word Coach" was more challenging and had a wider variety of games; you can learn a lot more by doing a newspaper crossword.

The word search (or word seek, or word find, whichever you prefer) is kind of the slack-jawed cousin of the crossword, but this Xbox Live Arcade game livens it up a little by adding time limits and competitive play.

As with the pencil-and-paper version, you're given a list of words and a grid in which the words are hidden, running in all directions. Some of the puzzles give you extra points for finding a theme that matches all the hidden words; you can also score bonuses by matching opposites or finding a series of answers before a timer ticks down.

Competitive play can be pretty lively, although a game rarely takes longer than a minute. Lately, however, it's been hard to find any online challengers; I don't know if that's because of Xbox Live's recent technical issues or because players have gotten bored. "Word Puzzle" could have been a nice change of pace for Microsoft's online service, but it's just too simple to recommend.