Joined: 10 Mar 2008 Posts: 13 Location: Manila, Philippines
Bookworm Adventures
f you enjoy word making games, particularly of the boggle sort, then there is absolutely nothing else on the market that compares to Bookworm Adventures. A true masterpiece in the genre with no competition to speak of.
The gameplay is simple. You spell words with whatever letters you are presented with doing damage to the particular foe you face. Each vanquished enemy leads to another and they get progressively more and more challenging. The basic concept would get a bit boring if it were done by any other company. Popcap has really spent a great deal of time adding complexities and more areas for gameplay.
As you progress you are given items that you can choose to bring along in each chapter to give bonuses to certain word categories, defend you against specific attacks, increase damage, etc etc. Selecting from your closet of items can be quite interesting in itself.
The enemies themselves gain more and more interesting abilities to affect the board of letters, add affects to damage you over time, resist against particular abilities and so on. Spelling larger words rewards you with updated gem letters that add special affects to the attacks you dish out when used in words that you spell. Things such as poison, fire, freezing, healing, all your standard rpg elements here.
Put that all together with a highly polished presentation that only Popcap has really mastered, and this title becomes a must buy for the casual game enthusiast.
My only negative comment has been the extreme difficulty of the final book of the game. It may just be that I do not possess a wide enough vocabulary to become a true master Bookworm, but I have not yet been able to overcome even the opening chapters of this final storyline.
Come prepared to take your time searching for the longest words you can as it will become necessary before your journey is through. (there are no time limits to your turns and casually thinking it over is all part of the fun)