Bookworm Adventures Deluxe Review

Bookworm Adventures Deluxe Review (by Gamezebo) 

With such celebrated puzzlers as Bejeweled, Zuma, Inasaniquarium, Chuzzle and Feeding Frenzy 2, PopCap has more than earned its reputation as a trusted casual games publisher.

Guess what? The company has done it again with its latest game: Bookworm Adventures Deluxe.

This clever word game serves as a sequel to PopCap's 3-year-old hit, Bookworm, but adds a lengthy story with plenty of humor, and cleverly folds in role-playing game (RPG) elements to keep gamers glued to their monitors until the wee hours of the morn.

In case you've never played a game of Bookworm, the core game-play in Bookworm Adventures Deluxe involves a 4 x 4 grid of randomly-placed letters and it's your job to created words out of them. Unlike the original Bookworm, the letters you click to make a word do not need to be adjacent to one another. The longer the word or the higher the letter value (think Scrabble), the more points you'll earn.

Our hapless hero is a tiny green worm named Lex (short for Lexicon, perhaps?), and in the main Adventure mode he is magically zapped into books to confront a malevolent threat to the Great Library. The epic tale spans 30 chapters in all, each with a different theme as our little bookworm traverses a huge map to confront enemies of all shapes and sizes.

What's that? You're confused about how a word game mixes in fighting bad guys? So were we. Here's how it works:

While you create words with letters from the middle of the screen, Lex faces off against foes at the top, be it ancient Roman soldiers, mystical Sirens or sea serpents onboard a ship or even angry ewes ("This is a monster?!" asks Lex).

Depending on the word you create, Lex charges his enemy in a dual and inflicts damage. The enemy then takes his/her/it's turn, and punishes Lex in a single blow. "Me hate worm!" yells a one-eyed Cyclops. If your word is just so-so, such as P-E-A-R-S, then you may only take away 1 heart from above the enemy's head. But if it's a good one, such as Q-U-A-I-N-T or U-N-A-L-T-E-R-E-D, then expect to finish the monster off by taking away 2 or 3 hearts out of a total of 5. This game offers more than 150 different enemies, each with a unique look, fighting style and short description on who they are.

Besides the turn-based combat, another RPG element is "leveling up." After defeating enemies, your leveling up bar begins to fill up. Eventually, Lex earns an overall strength increase in one area, such as health. This is a terrific idea as it dangles a carrot in front of the gamer, who will always want to grow stronger over time to defeat the increasingly tough opponents and stronger "boss characters" (the biggest or meanest enemy at the end of the chapter).

Players will also earn treasures from time to time, which assist you in future battles. This may come in the form of "The Bow of Zyx," which boosts words using letters X, Y or Z, while the Golden Fleece treasure grants Lex an extra heart for a short period of time (be sure to click on this treasure when your health is low during a fight).

Enemies may do things such as stun you bad enough that you miss a turn or stomp down on the ground and cause one of the tiles to crack; you can still use it to make a word but its points won't count when inflicting damage. You'll also come across power-ups such as gems, magic potions and other aids to help Lex prevail.

As if all of this wasn't enough, completing the main story mode unlocks a speedy Arena mode and three secret mini-games (our lips are S-E-A-L-E-D).

As a game critic, it's an unusual occurrence when you can't find any real fault in a title, but Bookworm Adventures Deluxe is one of those rarities. Don't take our word for it, download the trial version of the game to see for yourself.

Bookworm Adventures Deluxe Review (by Gamemile) 

Bookworm Adventures Deluxe - Vocabulary Fight

PopCap's name speaks for itself: Bejeweled, Zuma, Chuzzle, Bookworm and other company's puzzles are all-time best-sellers in the world of the casual gaming. A release of new PopCap's title was long expected and at last ... here it is, Bookworm Adventures Deluxe - a smashing puzzle-fight-quest mixture with 3 storeybooks, challenging mini-games and more than 150 enemies.

Game story: A funny green worm named Lex whom we've already met in Bookworm is to face a dangerous threat to the Great Library. You'll follow him to the Ancient Greece, Island of Cyclopes and other mythic places described in 30 chapters of his adventures. Traversing a huge map, Lex is to fight Troyan Spearman, wolves, sirens and many other enemies on his way.

So the main task of the game is to defeat enemies by spelling words composed of tiles with different letters.

Those who played the first game will notice at once that the playing field and rules have changed a bit: Bookworm Adventures Deluxe game has a 4x4 grid filled with randomly placed letters. Unlike original game, where you make a word of adjacent letters, here you pick up letters from anywhere. Try to make long words to get more points and power for fighting foes. If you are completely at loss for a word, use the Scramble button, but you'll be punished with penalty for reshuffling the letters.

Along with creating words from the grid, Lex faces enemies at the top of the playing field.

Once the word is created, Lex starts exchanging blows with an enemy in a duel. Here you'll see how your lexical skills are rewarded: if you've made a short word, you may only take away one heart above the enemy's head. If your word was long enough, you'll take away 2 or 3 monster's hearts. When the enemy's Health meter is empty, i.e. when all 5 hearts over his head are taken away, the monster is totally defeated.

Mind that some Secret Bonus Words do additional damage to monsters - try spelling foes' names or the names of their attacks, and your chances to kill the evil creature with one blow will rise!

Another feature of the game is a Level up Bar - it's gradually filling up as you defeat enemies. As it's filled and your Lex is strong enough, he can oppose the increasingly tougher foes and in the end even fight a "boss character" who's the strongest enemy at the end of each chapter.

Beware of foes' bad hits: when injured, you miss a turn or your enemy can crack some tiles - you can still use it to make a word but its points are not scored.

Progressing through chapters, you'll be rewarded with power-ups: gems and magic potions which will help you to win a battle. Multiple treasures like "The Bow of Zyx" which boosts words with X, Y or Z letters, or Golden Fleece treasure which gives worm an extra heart are also waiting for Lex on his quest.

Profit of a chance to bring winter to your game: you can choose different types of animation by typing special codes into the main menu.

Thus, the word "winter" is a key word for snow falling, while "celebrate" code's animation is a perfect background for the game to be played on Xmas and New Year Eve. So we think Bookworm Adventures Deluxe will be a good Xmas gift for all gamers!

Pros and cons: The effects in the game are astonishing, the plot is able to held spellbound both children and grown-ups. It's really educative, besides, it trains memory: here you are not to simply make words, but to memorize the names of the creatures you meet, as making their names score you more points.

But in my humble opinion, people fond of brainteasing word games are rarely fond of fighting, so isn't the game too overstuffed?