Game Reviews

Bookworm (iPhone)

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Bookworm (iPhone)

Bookworm can't chew a hole through an iPhone, but expect it to chomp up your spare time and nibble away at your brain. Vocabulary skills are put to the test in this challenging word game that places a premium on clever words and strategic use of letters.

While the format is engrossing, however, Bookworm bites off more than it can chew with a high level of difficulty.

Letters arranged on a 7x7 grid await assembly into words in two modes of play: Classic and Timed. In both modes, successfully tracing out words using adjacent letters nets you points.

New letter tiles drop in from the top of the grid to replace those cleared, including fiery red tiles that burn the letters underneath. Once these crimson culprits reach the bottom of the grid it's game over. Preventing red letter tiles from engulfing your game in flames is a matter of clearing them from the grid by including them in a word.

The rules remain the same between the two modes, the only difference being a clock that ticks away the seconds before a word must be formed in Timed mode. Fail to generate a word in time and the red tiles burn down the grid.

Classic mode also features red letter tiles, although the luxury of unlimited time allows you to deal with them at leisure.

Along with preventing your library of letters from going up in smoke, your goal is to accumulate as many points as possible.

You do so by using uncommon letters or drafting particularly lengthy words. Accumulating points bumps you up a level, which brings an increasingly difficult slate of descending letters and ups the number of red letter tiles that appear.

Forming words longer than three or four letters is a real challenge due to the random assortment of letters. A vocabulary ripe with big words is of little use here; on the contrary, it's little terms that succeed in Bookworm.

Making use of what letters you're given is a serious mental workout, one that can put a strain on your brain when dealt an unlucky slate.

A more forgiving formula is needed to ensure that words can be formed with greater ease or at least to keep dead sections of the grid in play. It isn't uncommon to find a group of vowels or section of consonants render part of the grid essentially unworkable.

It's frustrating to watch a red tile appear in the midst of a sterile section, any attempt to eliminate it made futile by a useless assortment of letters.

It's an unpleasant by-product of randomness that lessens the impact of the game, even though it remains thoroughly playable. Other elements amiss - a lack of network scoreboards, more varied modes of play - keep Bookworm from being placed on the highest shelf in the iPhone library of word games.

Bookworm (iPhone)

A straightforward game that makes trouble with random lettering for word generation that is tough and occasionally frustrating
Score
Tracy Erickson
Tracy Erickson
Manning our editorial outpost in America, Tracy comes with years of expertise at mashing a keyboard. When he's not out painting the town red, he jets across the home of the brave, covering press events under the Pocket Gamer banner.