Mudkip's Word Finder
Mudkip's Word Finder is a word search minigame in Pokémon Team Turbo. The words to be found are Pokémon species.
Starting the game
The Mudkip's Word Finder is available from the main menu. It's also one of the minigames available at the Adventure Mode!, between the Race 3 (Gran Prix Course) and the Race 4 (Aqua-mania!).
Game modes
If the player starts Mudkip's Word Finder directly from the main menu, it will have multiple levels, and it won't affect the racing games.
If played as part of the Adventure Mode!, then the player is able to gain Furret Speed or Super Furret Speed for the next race.
Gameplay
The playing area has 16×10 (160) letters, and occupies most of the game screen. There are 8 Pokémon names to find; they are listed at the bottom (7 revealed names and 1 "???" secret name). The timer and number of hints are displayed at the left.
The player is required to find the Pokémon names in the main game area, before the timer runs out. The Pokémon names don't cross each other; that is to say, a given letter block can't be used for two Pokémon names at once.
Selecting words
The player is able to select a Pokémon name by clicking on its two endpoints (the first and last letters, in any order) and then pressing Enter.
- If the player presses Enter when there is a single letter selected, this will be ignored and the game will keep waiting for the other letter.
- Once the player has clicked on the first endpoint, the second endpoint must be horizontally or vertically aligned with the first one; clicking on any other letter will be ignored by the game.
- The game accepts words with at least 2 letters (even though the shortest Pokémon name available is "Muk" with 3 letters; "Mew" is not available).
- It's also possible to make a selected word longer, but not shorter.
- If the player selects two endpoints but they form an incorrect word, then once the player presses Enter, that word will be unselected and they will have the chance to select another word from the beginning.
- If the player clicks on a wrong letter, then it will not be possible to unclick it. The only way to keep playing is by clicking on another letter that is either horizontally or vertically aligned so as to form a word, and then press Enter to confirm that word (even if it's an incorrect word).
For instance, if the player finds the name "MASQUERAIN", it can be selected by clicking on the initial "M" and the final "N" (in any order) and then pressing Enter. If the player selects too few letters such as just "QUERA" in the middle, it's still possible to make that word longer by clicking on the correct endpoints. However, if the player selects a word with added letters such as "ABMASQUERAIN" or "MASQUERAINAB", it's not possible to unselect it, although they may try to confirm that word by pressing Enter, and then try again to select "MASQUERAIN" from the beginning.
If the player successfully selects a Pokémon name, then a large "X" will cross that name on the list at the bottom. The player wins the game by finding at least the 7 revealed words; finding the secret "???" word is not needed to win. If the player finds all 8 words, the player wins and the current level ends. If the player finds all 7 revealed words but does not find the secret "???" word, then the game will go on until the timer runs out, at which point the player wins anyway. If the timer runs out but the player has not found at least the 7 revealed words, the game ends and the player returns to the main menu. (in other words, in the Adventure Mode!, the player will be unable to go to the next race if the timer runs out)
Levels and deadlines
If played as part of the Adventure Mode!, this will be a single level 0 game (deadline: 1 minute and 49 seconds). If played directly from the main menu, there will be multiple levels, each with their own deadline. The level number is not shown in normal gameplay. However, in the internal memory of the game, the levels are numbered from 0 to 9. Each level has a certain deadline, which decreases by 10 seconds each level.
The level 9 is unwinnable in normal gameplay, because there is a delay for each click, therefore there is not enough time to select all the required words. If the player wins anyway (such as by using a cheating mechanism), the next levels and deadlines become unpredictable as explained in the level glitch below.
| Level 0 1:49 |
Level 1 1:39 |
Level 2 1:29 |
Level 3 1:19 |
Level 4 1:09 |
Level 5 0:59 |
Level 6 0:49 |
Level 7 0:39 |
Level 8 0:29 |
Level 9 0:19 |
Hints
The player has 2 hints per level. Clicking on a hint is equivalent to automatically clicking on the first letter of a Pokémon name in the playing area. However, the game does not indicate where the last letter would be; the player is expected to find the last letter and click on it (thus forming a word) then press Enter. It's possible to make a mistake by clicking on the wrong letter (in which case the word formed would be incorrect), in which case the player may press Enter anyway and keep playing as usual.
Pausing the game
Even though the game has a timer, it's still possible to pause the game by clicking the "Back" button, which causes the game to ask "Return to the Main Menu?"; or by pressing Alt+F4, which causes the game to ask "Are you sure that you would like to quit?" The timer is paused until the player answers "Yes" or "No". The game will remain partially visible while paused.
Blurb
It's a big word puzzle filled with Pokémon names, and you need to find them all before time runs out! The names you need to find are at the bottom of the screen, along with a mystery name (which appears as ??? on the list). Names appear forwards, not backwards, and always either across or down, never diagonally. When you find one of the names, use the mouse to click on its first letter, then click again on its last letter. When the whole word is highlighted, press the Enter key to see if you're correct.
If you get stumped, press the Hint button to reveal the starting letter of one of the remaining names. If you get all of the names in the puzzle you'll get Furret Speed in the next race. If you get all the names PLUS the mystery name, you'll get Super Furret Speed!
Glitches
Click delay
The game takes about 1 second to process each click on a letter, or the act of pressing Enter. When the player clicks on a letter, they are required to wait without moving the cursor from that letter, until it appears to be successfully clicked (there is a sound effect, and the letter changes color). If the player moves the mouse away to another letter, then that will be clicked instead. For instance, if the player clicks on the letter "A" but then moves the mouse away to a letter "F" before "A" appears to be clicked, then the letter "F" will be clicked instead.
It's possible to exploit this glitch to play faster, by clicking on any letter and then quickly moving the mouse to the wanted letter. For instance, if the player wants to click on "A", they may simply click on any letter and then place the cursor on the letter "A", then wait until "A" appears to be clicked.
If the player clicks multiple times, then it will take some time for each click to be processed in order. For instance, if the player wants to select the word "GULPIN", it's possible to click twice on any letter, then move the mouse to the initial "G", then move it again to the final "N". If this is timed correctly, the Pokémon name will be selected.
Unwinnable game
It's not possible to legitimately win a level 9 game, because it starts with only 0:19 seconds. The player is required to click on 14 letters to select the minimum of 7 words (not counting the secret "???"), but they have to wait for the time delay between clicking on a letter and waiting for the system to process that click; and also for the time delay between pressing Enter and waiting for the system to accept the word.
Level glitch
If the player wins a level 9 game (with less 0:19 seconds), the levels and deadlines after level 9 become unpredictable. For instance, after level 9 (0:19 seconds), there may come level 6 (0:49 seconds), level 1 (1:39) and so on. In normal gameplay, the level number is not seen (although it's hidden in the game memory); the displayed result is simply that each level has an unpredictable deadline (one of the ten deadlines available between 1:49 and 0:19, inclusive).
Pokémon availability
This game uses the same list of Pokémon species as the Charizard's Crossword Challenge. Specifically, there are Pokémon available up to Generation III, with some exceptions:
- This game doesn't have any Pokémon without evolutions or pre-Evolutions as of this generation (for instance, this game does not include Farfetch'd, Kangaskhan, Pinsir, Tauros, Lapras, Ditto, and so on; similarly, it does not include any Legendary or Mythical Pokémon).
- For every evolutionary line with branched Evolutions, only the first evolution in the National Pokédex order is available in this game, and the other branched Evolutions are ignored.
- The families of Nidoran♀ and Nidoran♂ are not available either.
List of available Pokémon
Trivia
Errors
- The in-game description tells the player to select a word by clicking on the first letter, then the last letter. While that works as expected, the order does not matter, as it could be the other way around.
- The in-game description says that the player receives Furret Speed or Super Furret Speed at the end of the crossword game, but this is only true if the game is played as part of the Adventure Mode!. If the game starts directly from the main menu, the player won't receive anything.
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This article is part of Project Sidegames, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon Sidegames. |
