BookWorm

BookWorm
PopCap Games
http://www.popcap.com

BookWorm is simply a word-search game. That's it. Sounds innocent enough, right? Yeah, that's what I thought, too. Like other PopCap games, the basic version is free and browser-based. Shelling out $24.95 and registering will get you a more robust downloadable version of the game. PopCap is responsible for addictive minigames like the infamous Bejeweled, and as a time-sucker, BookWorm is honestly as bad or worse.

The Plan

BookWorm presents you with a field of scrabble tiles and calmly waits for you to string together words. Longer words score more points of course, and producing a 5-letter word will turn a random tile on the board into a gold tile. Other colored tiles can be generated, and words including a colored tile are worth bonus points. The accumulating score periodically advances the player up a sort of demented version of a wordsmith's career path. Each level you are promoted (Proofreader, Entomologist, Exterminator...), and told what your longest and best scoring words were that round (and best words of the entire game at the end of the game).

The Execution

After discovering BookWorm, it only took a few days of play to convince me to ante up and register for the Deluxe version. I'd been looking for this exact sort of game for years, and going by the sheer number of hours I was playing, $24.95 was more than worth it. I'm definitely happy I did. In addition to not tying up your internet, the Deluxe version comes with quite a few enhancements, and will periodically check for you to see if any new upgrades are available for the game. One of the most fundamental improvements is that the game automatically saves exactly where you left off when you close out and gives you the option to resume when you fire it up again. I have already had one game that went on for 3 days!

BookWorm Deluxe contains both a "Classic" and "Action" version of the game. The Action version is the same game but against a timeclock, where burning letters will drop by themselves instead of only when you spell a word. It seems to be less popular than the "at your leisure" Classic version, but its nice if you want a more action-packed game...of word-search. There is a larger dictionary, and definitions of some of the more unusual words will appear once you spell them (Qua, for example - if you already knew this word, then you will be a BEAST at this game). The Deluxe version includes additional tile colors, like the pretty gemstone blue, the attaining of which also causes the BookWorm to exclaim, "Astounding!" Oh yeah. This version has a talking BookWorm, and a haunting musical score that will stick in your head for the rest of your life. Finally, the Deluxe edition also lets you upload your high scores for the world to see.

Not that the world will be seeing my high scores any time soon. That 3-day game I mentioned? Less than half of the lowest high score for that DAY. I just know there is an army of grannies out there who have put down their New York Times crossword puzzles and united to lay the smackdown on my spelling skillz. Once I did get up on the "Best Words" record board, though. I've seen 3-letter words up there, so clearly the best word has a lot to do with stringing multiple colored bonus tiles together. The good news is that you do improve with practice in this game. The holy grail that is the BookWorm High Scores board is one of the long-term goals that gives a "quick" game like BookWorm a hook. It might possibly be easier to get a high score in the Action game, but so far I think I prefer the Classic version. With the resume game feature, it almost feels like working on a model ship or building a house of cards, something created over a long period of time, and I just like that.

This is one of those games which might be TOO good at what it does. I have a heap of new games to play, yet I still find myself booting up BookWorm for a "quick game". It's not the game's fault its so playable, that's its job after all. But it's one of those games you can very easily put far too much time into if you don't pace yourself. I'm sure the addictiveness wears off somewhat after a few weeks (it did in the case of Bejeweled, at least for me). I'm still in the honeymoon phase right now though. Just make sure you don't get sucked into a game of BookWorm and forget to tape Survivor, ok?

Is BookWorm potentially educational? Perhaps. I know I learned two things for sure. One, that I thoroughly hate the letters J, X, and Z, especially if they are on fire. Two, never give up! You'd be amazed at just how MANY words there are out there. Several times I've been one turn away from losing only to start experimenting with random word orders and come up with something that saves my game. In a way this is sort of annoying, but when the game provides the definition for such words, it could be considered sort of educational in some circles (though I wish the definitions would show for every word, at least as an optional setting). And I'm guessing that all that hunting for word patterns is somehow good for your brain. Maybe?

There is very little I can say against BookWorm. The game does not recognize one or two-letter words, which is fine by me. But I've been a bit frustrated at times when words I felt were perfectly legitimate wouldn't work. It's never left me with no words to spell, or cost me a game, but come on, isn't ROLO as valid a word as QUA? No? Oh. Well then my only other issue is that I wish the grannies would stop playing BookWorm just for one day so that I can make a high score. Please?

Final Analysis

I give the Deluxe Edition BookWorm an overall grade of 92%. It's one of those classic simple games: intuitive yet infinitely replayable. The free version of the game is a lot of fun, but paying for the Deluxe version is in my opinion well worth the money if you like this sort of game. I must take away a point or two though, for the fact that the game causes me to lie in bed spelling words in my head as I try to fall asleep. That's not cool, PopCap!