# Kitsune: Word Game — Classic word strategy game.

> Classic word strategy game. (iPhone/iPad app by James Burnison.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/kitsune-word-game/id6760371821 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [James Burnison](https://appshunter.io/developer/1794349656)
- Category: Games, Board, Word
- Price: Free
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 15.0 · 70 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2026-03-16
- Data updated: 2026-08-29
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/kitsune-word-game/id6760371821/reviews.md

## What is Kitsune?

Kitsune is a fast, beautiful multiplayer word game for two players. Take turns placing letter tiles on a 15×15 board, building words, stacking points, and outplaying your opponent — one move at a time.

How it works
Place tiles to form words across and down the board. Score big with double and triple letter and word squares. The player with the most points when the tiles run out wins.

Play with friends
Invite friends directly or send a link to anyone. Games are turn-based — play on your schedule, get notified when it's your move.

Power-ups
Spend Tails to gain an edge:
• Word Hint — highlights where valid words can be played
• Free Swap — swap tiles without losing your turn

Daily rewards
Log in every day to earn Tails. Build your streak for bigger bonuses.

Track your stats
See your lifetime wins, top scores, longest words, and more.

Clean, customizable design
Choose dark or light theme. Pinch and double-tap to zoom the board. Plays great on any screen size.


## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 0.1.4 — 2026-08-27

**Nudge stalled opponents from your home screen**

Waiting on a friend? When it's their turn on any of your active multiplayer games, you'll see a new bell icon on that game's row on your home screen. Tap it and we'll send them a push notification asking them to take their turn.

Guardrails keep it polite: your opponent has to have been sitting on their turn for at least 24 hours before your first nudge, then one nudge per 24 hours, five nudges max per game. If you send all five and 24 more hours pass with still no move, the bell turns into a red flag — tap it to end the game and record it as a win for you.

The existing red resign flag stays on every active game row (whether it's your turn or theirs), so quitting a stuck game is unchanged.

**10 new tile colors in the Styles tab**

Onyx (matte black), Silver (cool metallic gray), Cocoa (rich chocolate brown), Indigo (deep blue-violet), Cyan (bright turquoise), Fern (grass green), Peach (warm salmon), Magenta (hot pink), Plum (deep royal purple), and Blush (soft rose-pink). They join the existing 12 in Tile Colors, and use the same 100-Orb unlock system — new orbs drop from daily login streaks, objective completions, and weekly rewards just like the originals.

**Labor Day Holiday Special**

Four new limited-time commemorative tile styles at the top of the Styles tab (below Move Highlight) for the two weeks before Labor Day through one week after:

Denim — a real denim-fabric background. Free for everyone.

Wheat Gold — an amber-to-yellow gradient with a wheat sheaf illustration in the bottom-right.

Corn — a copper gradient with a corn cob that shades yellow at the kernels and green toward the leaves.

Wrench — a gunmetal gradient with a wrench silhouette rotated across the tile.

**How the gated Labor Day styles unlock**

Wheat Gold, Corn, and Wrench start locked. During the 14 days before Labor Day (September 7, 2026), you can unlock each by watching 15 short video ads for that specific style. Fresh 5-per-day cap on Labor Day ads — that's separate from the Tile Colors ads' 3/day cap, so you can farm both flows in the same day (up to 8 total).

After Labor Day passes, remaining locked styles switch to a flat 1,500 Tails cost. Once unlocked (by either method) they stay unlocked permanently.

Wheat Gold, Corn, and Wrench are 2026-only for the ad-watch route — from next year's Labor Day onward they stay Tails-only, and new video-ad styles will arrive for that year.

### 0.1.3 — 2026-08-07

**Head-to-Head Stats**

Ever wondered exactly how you stack up against a specific friend? Now you can see it. Tap the new bar-chart icon on any Friends row, or tap your opponent's name/score in the game header, or open the game's 3-dot menu, you'll get a side-by-side comparison of every stat we track, scoped to just your matchup with that one person. Different opponent, different numbers.

**What you'll see**

Record and win percentage against that opponent. Current and best win streaks specific to this matchup. Total points, average game score, and best single game for each of you. Longest word each of you has played. Highest-scoring word. A mirrored word-length histogram, your bars grow left, theirs grow right. High-value plays broken out into 20+, 30+, 50+, and 100+ point tiers. Premium-letter counts (Q, Z, X, J) for both sides.

**Your history is included**

The first time you open head-to-head for a given opponent, both sides are automatically aggregated from every completed multiplayer game the two of you have ever played together,  you don't need to start from zero. Every game completion after that keeps the stats fresh automatically, and the screen loads instantly on repeat visits.

**Objective completion dialog**

When you complete a daily objective, you now get a centered tap-to-dismiss dialog with the objective name, tails earned, and orb reward. When several complete on the same turn, they all appear together in that same dialog, no more snackbars stacking up at the bottom of the screen fighting for attention.

### 0.1.2 — 2026-07-03

**Celebrate 250 years with free commemorative tile styles**

America turns 250, and we're celebrating with four limited-time tile styles — completely free for every player. No Orbs to collect, no Tails to spend. Find them in the new Holiday Special section at the top of the Styles tab.

**Patriot**

A red, white, and blue diagonal gradient sweeps across each tile with crisp navy lettering. Subtle enough to play with every day, patriotic enough to make a statement.

**America 250 — two companion designs**

Deep navy tiles framed in gold, with a large "250" stamped diagonally across each tile like a commemorative coin — a quiet nod to 250 years. Prefer to spell it out? A second variant stretches "AMERICA 250" edge to edge instead. Either way the stamp sits softly behind your letters, which stay crisp and white against the navy.

**Fireworks**

Our first animated tile style! Each tile becomes a slice of night sky with three staggered firework bursts — red, gold, white, and blue — looping continuously on both your rack and the board.

**Two new holiday move highlights**

At the end of the Move Highlight row you'll find Star Spangled — a red, white, and blue gradient border around your last played move — and Patriot Pulse, an animated glow that smoothly cycles through the flag colors. Both free, like all our highlight colors.

These are commemorative styles: once added, they're available permanently. Tap any of them in the Styles tab to equip.

### 0.1.1 — 2026-05-02

**Shrine tiles now stay marked**
When you play a tile on a Shrine bonus square, it gains a permanent animated wavy border for the rest of the game — plus a small label in the corner showing the bonus type (DL, TL, DW, or TW). Your opponent can see exactly why you scored big, and the indicator persists even after you close and reopen the app.

**Personalize your display name**
Edit your display name in Settings → Profile. By default opponents see "First L" (first name + last initial). Check "Show full name" if you'd prefer the full version shown.

**Improved tile draw balance**
Changes were made to help reduce excessive same-vowel draws in a single draw

### 0.1.0 — 2026-04-20

**No more accidental passes!**
Tapping Pass now shows a quick confirmation before skipping your turn — one of the most-requested quality-of-life fixes.

**"No valid moves" always shows**
The orange warning banner that appears when you have no valid plays now shows up reliably, even after your opponent just played a word or passed.

**Review the final board**
The game-over screen can now be closed with the × button so you can inspect the full board before heading back to your games list.

**Ad display fixes**
Banner ads are now correctly shown or hidden based on your device's physical screen size

## Apps similar to Kitsune

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| --- | --- | --- | --- |
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## More apps by James Burnison

- [checkbook wizard](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/checkbook-wizard/id6741478550)

All apps by James Burnison: https://appshunter.io/developer/1794349656

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-29.*