Bookworm Adventures Deluxe is a word game where you create words out of letters arranged randomly in a 4-by-4 grid, similar to the game Boggle. The only difference is the letters you choose do not need to be adjacent to one another. You can pick from any of the letters in the grid to create a word. The longer the word or the higher the letter value, the more points you’ll earn. (think Scrabble)

The seemingly boring task of creating words from a random assortment of letters is worked into a gripping storyline involving a cute green worm named Lex. Lex is sent on a mission to save Cassandra the Oracle, who is being held captive in one of the books in Lex’s library. Lex is transported into the book with the help of a magic pen and must fight enemies in an effort to reach the end of each chapter. Lex is able to attack his enemies by spelling a word, and the more points he earns, the more damage to the enemy.

The enemy then retaliates and whacks poor Lex. The first person to lose all the health in their heart-o-meter loses the battle.

Lex travels through 30 chapters, each with its own unique theme and set of quirky characters as the enemies. He fights everything from ancient Roman soldiers, to mystical creatures, to sea serpents and pirate ghosts. Each enemy has its own appearance, description and style of fighting.

Lex is rewarded with “treasures” as he defeats enemies along the way and becomes stronger. These treasures include “The Bow of Zyx” which boost points for using the letters X, Y or Z, or the Golden Fleece, which temporarily grants Lex an extra heart during a battle. Lex earns more treasures by defeating the boss at the end of each chapter. Lex’s overall strength will increase, which means his leveling bar will go up. This will help Lex in the next chapter as the enemies grow increasingly more difficult to defeat.

“Bookworm Adventures Deluxe” is an entertaining game that is fun to play and easy to download at Popcap Games. It may seem childish to some, but the actual challenge of searching for words among these random letters can be addicting, especially when there is an mystical creature or pirate enemy killed as a reward! In addition, there is clever humor hidden in parts of the game. While the levels are downloading, instead of saying something cliche like “installing” and “please wait”, the game will display a series of random phrases such as “crying over spilled milk”, “consuming helium”, “not crashing” or “dividing by 0.” This game may be something worth trying while you are bored at work one day.

4 Stars.

About The Author

Meaghan Queally is a Blast Magazine staff writer and part of the original 01/01/07 launch crew

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