Game Review: BookWorm

A while back I noticed a game a receptionist was playing on a PC at a local tax office.  I later found it on Yahoo and got hooked.  Astraware now treats us to this addictive word game for the Palm OS.

The Game: 

The game is simple – Letter tiles, ala Scrabble, are dropped into fill 7 columns, alternately offset.  Your job is to spell words with these tiles, starting with any letter and proceeding through neighboring letters.  Depending upon the length of the word you spell and the point values of the letters that make it up, you are awarded a score.  The tiles are removed and fed to the Bookworm.  All tiles shift downward, and more tiles are added to fill the matrix.  Sounds simple?

The longer and better words you spell, certain tiles may change to Green or Gold.  Using Green tiles double the score and Gold tiles quadruple the score.   Spell long words with lots of these tiles and you are awarded.

After several words have been spelled, you might find the field a little barren of possibilities.  You might have click on the Bookworm.  Doing this completely replaces all tiles on the screen - Gold and Green tiles disappear.

Play proceeds in levels while you feed the Bookworm.  There is no time limit like in other games.  However if you spell words too few letters too often, red burning tiles appear.  If you don’t use these, they will burn tiles underneath them.   Clicking on the Bookworm as described above does NOT get rid of burning tiles.  But it might give you a better chance OF making a word with them.   Should a burning tile not be used when it sits on the bottom of the screen, it will ignite the library and the game is over.

To make things even more interesting there is a bonus word that is displayed at the top edge of the screen.  Each successive bonus word spelled is worth more and more points.

The Palm version of this game claims to have a dictionary of over 35,000 words included.  You will find some surprising inclusions and omissions, but overall it makes for a satisfying play.

The strategy of this game becomes apparent after a few plays.  Sometimes you will see long words that need a letter or two moved into position.  Or you may need to do the same to form a bonus word.  It can be VERY pleasing to manipulate the field to form a really long or high scoring word.

Graphics:

The graphics are sound on the low-res Color version, and are representative of the PC versions.  Animation is limited to falling tiles, burning tiles, removing tiles and feeding the Bookworm, and static bookworm animations. The animations are smooth and just the right amount necessary.  The animation can be altered using the Glows option in the options screen.  Points can be set to be shown or hidden here as well.  Speed as well can be sent to  Slow, Medium, or Fast.

A mono-color version is also available, but is not reviewed here.

Sounds:

Sounds can be eliminated, changed to Subtle or Full.  They are limited to synchronize with the animation, and mostly clicks and alarm beeps.  But they function admirably

Comments:

I can only fault this version for the dictionary – a larger one might have omitted the occasional odd word that is rejected.  The only other fault on the Low-Res color version is the position, size, and color of the Bonus Word.  The tiny font is small and hard to read – Green on Brown.  Occasionally the font is hard to read: Is it a B or an R?   That can lead to some confusing failed attempts to spell a bonus word.

Other than that, I have to rate this rather high.  It is an odd combination of several word games that will definitely grab you.  It is easy to pick up, but hard to beat.  Since it can be easily stopped and returned to, you will find yourself returning to this one time and time again.

Rating: 9/10

Available from Astraware, Palmgear, and Handango.  $14.95   Also available as one of 4 games in the Popcap Games Pack #2 ($29.95), also from Astraware.

Review modified 3/9/2004.  Originally published on PDA Avenue.