Bookworm Word Game

by Martie
(Michigan, US)

Bookworm word game is a single player computer & video game that is a little like Boggle, a little like Scrabble, a whole lot of fun and highly addictive.

Anyone who is planning on giving this game a try should plan to give it a go on their day off because a few minutes of play time can turn into hours before you know it.

The object of the game is to form words which will add books to Lex's library (Lex is the bookworm). Once you acquire enough points to fill a shelf with books you move to the next level of play forming more words and adding more books.

Bookworm Background
The word game Bookworm, also known as Bespelled, was originated by PopCap Games. It's successor, known as Bookworm Adventures, was released in 2006, although the current Bookworm version has been around since 2008.

With more and more Internet game sites becoming popular, this game has become available on a variety of game sites where you can either play a limited free version or pay and download the full version to your computer.

Several other Bookworm like word games have sprung up and these include: Word Web Deluxe by Big Fish Games, Magic Word Arcanum, Wordsworth and Fire Words designed for iPhone.

The game's popularity has also given rise to a couple of Bookworm word game forums. One of these forums is on Big Fish, the others can be found at www.zone.msn.com and www.absouluteastronomy.com. Pogo games has a general game forum where you can talk about bookworm as well as other games.

Skills Needed To Play

In order to play this game you need to have some word search and spelling skills. Having an extensive vocabulary will help you find larger words and gain more points thus winning more special tiles that are worth even more points.

Because of the skills needed this game is most suited for people 12 years and up, though younger children can enjoy playing and it will help to increase their spelling skills.

What You Need To Play

You can download and play the Bookworm word game on your computer - it is compatible with both Windows and Mackintosh. You can also play on an iPhone or other smart phone. You can also play this game on Gameboy advance and Xbox live arcade as well as playing on Nintendo using a DS cartridge or Nintendo DS using a digital download source.

While there is a charge to download this game to the computer there are trial versions of the game you can check out for free both on Pogo games and Yahoo games as well as from the PopCap Games official website. The cost of downloading Bookworm word game to your computer is around $10.00.

How To Play Bookworm

To play Bookworm, you either need to download the game or go to one of the sites offering a free trial. Click on the game and then when it comes up click start to begin play.

Begin looking for and finding words by clicking on the letters in order. In the left hand side of the screen the letters will be typed out and when you finish the word you simply hit the submit button and find the next word.

Each word you find is worth so many points and as you accumulate points, the bookcase on the left hand side of the screen will fill up with books. Once a shelf has been filled you move to a new level.

While the game seems easy enough, there are some special tiles that makes playing a bit more interesting.

Green Tiles

From time to time green tiles appear either at random or due to your finding and using larger words. Using these green tiles when making words will increase your score somewhat.

Fire Tiles

While the green tiles reward you for making larger words, fire tiles do the opposite. In the classic game mode fire tiles appear usually when you use too many three and four letter words in a row.

When one of these tiles appears you want to use them as quickly as possible because if they reach the library floor they burn down the library and the game is over.

Gold, Diamond, and Sapphire Tiles

When you use several words that are 5 letters or more you will begin seeing other tiles. The gold, diamond and sapphire tiles actually serve two purposes. They can up a word score by huge amounts helping you to accumulate high scores and move on the next level much faster.

The gold, diamond and sapphire tiles also offer you a bit of protection from the the fire tiles. The fire tiles take a longer time to burn through these tiles and so they move down the grid slower giving you more time to form words using the fire tiles.

So while the gold, diamond and sapphire tiles can really add up your score you might want to keep a few around to form a line at the bottom of the grid to prevent those fire tiles from reaching the library floor.

Help When You're Stumped

If you find yourself stumped because there are too many letters the same all together you can mix the letters up by clicking on the Lex. However, when you do this you will find yourself facing a period of fairly rapid fire tiles coming at you that have to dealt with. Scrambling the letters can well keep you playing which makes dealing with the fire tiles the better option.

Differences In The Classic and Action Version

There are several differences in the classic and action version of the game. The classic version is slower paced and the tiles don't move until you click form a word. You can use the scramble option at anytime except when the fire tiles are at the bottom of your grid.

In the action version of the games, the tiles are constantly shifting whether you form a word or not and the fire tiles appear more frequently and need to be dealt with quickly as they will keep moving downward.

The only downside to this game seems to be that it is never ending. However, the top score you can achieve is 12.4 billion. From there the point counter starts counting backwards. A visit to the forums revealed that avid players usually start going backwards about a year into play.

For those who can't get enough of Bookworm word game PopCap Games also offers Bookworm Adventures 1 and Bookworm Adventures 2.

NOTE — If you have anything to say about this game, whether it's a correction or an addition, feel free to use the Comments link below to have your say.