CHN LNK

CHN LNK calls itself the daily word chain game. Each day there is one chain of words in which every word links with the one below it to form a familiar phrase or compound: the game's own example runs forest trail, trail mix, mix tape, tape measure, measure step and step ladder.

You solve the whole chain by guessing letters. A letter that appears in any word of the chain lights up in green wherever it falls. The twist is that vowels are disabled until you have found all the consonants, so you have to read the shape of the words from their consonants alone. You start with five lives and lose one for each wrong letter; lives left at the end turn into stars, up to five a day.

Around that core sits a layer of extras. A daily mystery letter earns dynamite if you guess it next, and dynamite clears three letters that are not in any remaining word. Playing four days running switches on a safety net that forgives one wrong letter. A timed mode gives you a minute per guess. There are streak badges, a monthly leaderboard, a friends and family leaderboard and a calendar of past chains.

It suits players who like hangman and phrase puzzles, and anyone who enjoys the chain-of-phrases idea in games like Circuits.