NESpresso: Game Reviews \ PC \ Bookworm Deluxe

Game Stats
System: PC
Genre: Word / Puzzle
Players: 1
Memory used: Approx. 14 MB's (w/ Installer)
Playtime: 00:00 / 00:02 - 06:00
ESRB Rating: Everybody (6+)

Alternate languages available (sold separately)
Also available for Game Boy Advance

Screenshots

Another gem from Pop Cap which requires you to use your knowledge of words to keep your game from going up in smoke. In Bookworm, you strive to keep the library from burning down as long as you can by making words of 3 letters or more while removing the burning tiles from the playfield.

Pop Cap released Bookworm as a single player hybrid of Scrabble & Boggle, where players try to build words out the letters that are available on the playfield. The game has been released in other languages as well, so language teachers can use it as a teaching aide.

Like all other Pop Cap games, it's simple but effective. You have Booker, the Bookworm with a library background. The progress bar (above Booker) is a bookshelf & the playfield's a jagged to squeeze more tiles onto the playfield & more ways to make words (by giving it a hexagonal path instead of square).

The sound is simple, effective & occasionally annoying. The background music is simple & whimsical, but it's repetitive until you're in trouble (with one or more burning tiles at the bottom of the playfield). The sound effects are simply dropping tiles, tiles burning up, Booker eating the completed words & Booker's occasional burping. Thankfully, you can turn down the sounds within the game so you can play your own music.

The controls is as simple as point-n-click (slow pace) or even click-n-drag for faster gameplay. All you need is the mouse to play. If you use the point-n-click method, you click on each letter you want to use for your word. Once you're at the end of the word, you either click on the "Submit" button or click on the final letter. You can also click on a previously selected letter to back-up, if you make a mistake in building your word. You can either right-click or click on a different letter (one that's probably not connected to your word-in-progress) to cancel the word you're working on. If you use the click-n-drag method, which is suggested for action mode, you click down on your starting letter & drag across the letters you want to use. Once you reach the final letter, just let up on the mouse to submit it or right-click (without letting up on the left mouse button) to cancel the word-in-progress.

The gameplay is just make as many words as you can to fill up the bookshelf. In Classic mode, you can take your time building your words as it's turn based & you can really think of how to crank out those big words or how to get rid of the burning titles. Classic mode ends when you fail to make a word with a burning title that reaches the bottom of the playfield. In Action mode, you have to work quickly as the letter tiles periodically catch on fire & burn through the other tiles. Once a burning tile reaches the bottom the playfield, you have 10 seconds to make a word with it or you'll end your game.

Bookworm is a simple word game. Those who like to stretch their word power will enjoy the game. The Deluxe version includes an enchanced dictionary (which is locked on the unregistered version) & definition pop-ups for those unusual words (did you know that a fag is cigarette?) that you may run accross. Unfortunately, the makers of the game forces you to play with a clean mind... so don't bother making swear words or other potentially sick words (like dildo), unless they have an alternate definition. I highly suggest that you play the web version before considering to pick this up & paying the $20 to register it. Unregistered versions don't get the enchanced dictionary & you can only play like 10 times.