Bookworm Adventures is a word-forming puzzle video game, the follow-up to Bookworm from PopCap Games. Released in November 2006, Bookworm Adventures combines the "create words from sets of letters" aspect of Bookworm with several elements of a role-playing video game. In the 2007 Interactive Achievement Awards, Bookworm Adventures won the "Downloadable Game of the Year".[1] The game also won three Zeeby awards for Best Word & Trivia Game of 2006, Best Game Design of 2006 and Best Story/Narrative of 2006.[2]
A sequel for Bookworm Adventures, Bookworm Adventures: Volume 2, was released on July 30, 2009.
Development
In contrast to the lower production budgets typical of most "casual games", PopCap Games spent over two and a half years and US$700,000 developing Bookworm Adventures.[3] Although the direct sales model used by the company avoids various distribution and retail fees, this still represents one of the most expensive investments in the genre to date. John Vechey, PopCap's director, indicated that this did seem to be a departure from the previous model, noting that "A couple years ago, the prevailing wisdom was that it took three guys six months and $100,000 to make a casual game. They used to be considered a low art form."[3]
Players guide Lex the Bookworm (voiced by the Chief Creative Officer of PopCap, Jason Kapalka) through a number of stages, battling creatures along the way (which are largely based on Greek mythology, One Thousand and One Nights and Gothic fiction, while the foes in the game's sequel are based on fairy tales, Journey to the West and science fiction). Each battle consists of Lex squaring off against a given enemy. Both Lex and his enemy have health meters (represented by a number of hearts) which, when depleted, signal defeat (advance to the next section if an enemy is defeated and game over when a player dies). However, unlike more traditional role-playing games where players can injure their opponents with arms or magic, enemies in Bookworm Adventures are damaged by forming words.
As in the original Bookworm, words are formed from a grid of available letters, although unlike the original, the letters used to form the words need not be adjacent to one another. The longer the word which is formed, the more damage is done to opponents. Similarly, words generated using letters which are less common do more damage than those using only common letters. The game also features gems, which are generated by spelling more powerful words. Each gem has different effects, such as healing Lex and inflicting debuffs to the enemy. The "scramble" feature from the original title returns in Bookworm Adventures, allowing players to replace their current grid of letters with an entirely new set. The cost of doing this is forfeiting a turn, so that the enemy gets a "free" attack.
Each turn, players can form a single word, while enemies use one of their available attacks to damage Lex, inflict ailments to Lex, buff themselves, or manipulate the tiles in the grid. During battles, the player can see what attacks and abilities the enemy can use, located at the bottom-right portion of the screen. Some of these attacks can combine two or more effects. After each battle victory, Lex automatically recovers to full health before proceeding to the next battle; however, there are certain stages called "Survival Battles" (still called boss battles in the first game), where Lex will not be healed between enemies.
After a certain number of battles are won, a boss of increased difficulty is encountered. Once the boss is defeated, the chapter ends, and the player is rewarded with a treasure item. Treasures provide special abilities to Lex, such as a reduction in damage inflicted to him, or more damage generated from words containing certain letters, or even resistance to negative effects. In some cases, rather than receiving a new item, an existing item is upgraded, which improves the effect or ability of the old item. Once the player has accumulated more than three treasure items, they are required to choose which three items to bring along on later chapters. In the sequel, the player can also be awarded a companion, which gives a beneficial effect every four turns.
In addition to equipped items, players can also earn consumable potions, which can be used for an immediate benefit. The potion varieties consist of healing potions, potions which power up the next attack, and potions which cure any negative status conditions and/or negative tiles. While potions can be acquired gradually by defeating foes, potions can also be awarded for playing separate word-based mini-games between stages. In such mini-games, the player must try to guess a secret word, or must try to form as many words as possible from a set of letters. The more skillfully the player plays these mini-games, the greater the reward. In the sequel, the player can only have the maximum of 10 potions of each type, possibly to prevent farming.
Game modes
There are three game modes in the first game, as well as two extra modes: Adventure, Tome of Knowledge, Mini-Games, Arena, and Clips and Giggles.
The Adventure mode is the main mode of the game. In the Adventure mode, the player follows the story of Lex as he solves the mystery of the Great Library, fighting the opponents in order. The Adventure mode contains three books. Upon completion, the Adventure mode becomes permanently locked, meaning the player must create a new save file to replay the mode.
The Tome of Knowledge contains all information of the enemies, their attacks and abilities, their flavor text, and secrets that the player has found. This feature is unlocked after completing Book 1 in the Adventure mode. All enemies fought in the next two books in Adventure will be added here.
In Mini-Games, players can play three different mini-games and aim for a high score. This mode is unlocked after completing Book 2 in the Adventure mode. In the Adventure mode, the player can play a pre-selected mini-game for rewards that can aid them in later chapters.
The Arena mode is unlocked after completing the Adventure mode (completing Book 3). Here, players can battle through all the bosses in fast-paced action (instead of the Adventure mode's turn-based gameplay), except for certain bosses (Hydra, Sphinx, and Professor Codex). There is also an addition of a timer bar above the grid; if it's filled, the enemy will attack whether the player is ready or not. At the opposite side, the player can do several attacks in-between the enemy's attacks by spelling words quickly.
Clips and Giggles is where the comic introductions to each book and theme music of Bookworm Adventures can be found and replayed any time the player wishes. It also features commentary from PopCap Games on creating the game. It is unlocked by completing the Arena mode.
Release
Bookworm Adventures was released November 28, 2006, as packaged software, and released digitally over a nascent Steam shortly afterward on January 2, 2007. For unclear reasons, Electronic Arts, the rights holder which acquired PopCap Games in 2011, removed Bookworm Adventures from both Steam and EA's Origin in 2016, making the game impossible to purchase legally via digital download, a situation that has persisted since.[4]
Bookworm Adventures and the sequel Bookworm Adventures: Volume 2 received mostly positive reviews. GameRankings gave the original 78%[12] and the sequel 79%.[13]Metacritic ranked the original Bookworm Adventures at 82/100[14] and 79/100[5] for the sequel.
In the sequel, there are a few additions and differences. All features and game modes from the previous game, except Clips and Giggles, return in the sequel, with identical unlock conditions. The books in the sequel's Adventure mode are referred to as Books 4–6, following the numbering of the prequel. The books are titled Fractured Fairytales, The Monkey King, and Astounding Planet, respectively. The Adventure mode also allows the player to choose the mini-game they want to play when there is a tent icon, as opposed to being brought to a particular mini-game in the prequel. The Arena mode in the sequel contains every boss in the sequel, excluding Previous Lex, Skeletrox (Dance Commander), and The Machine.
The sequel also features a new mode called Adventure Replay, which is unlocked after completing the Adventure mode (completing Book 6). This mode allows the player to replay the Adventure mode, which was impossible in the prequel without creating a new save file. The player can choose any of the three books to play through; Lex is leveled down equivalently to what he should be at the chapter, and the player must keep Lex alive or otherwise receive a game over. Instead of the level up bar at the top-left, the player can find the score bar; Lex levels up after every chapter. There are eight badges of four levels (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum), which require the player to do some certain task; for example, defeating an enemy with Poison damage, spelling a 12-letter word, or using Diamond gems frequently.
Also introduced in the sequel are companions, which act similarly to treasures, but have a certain effect that is activated every four turns. For example, Mother Goose gives a health potion every four turns (unless the player has the maximum count of ten health potions, where Mother Goose will wait until the player uses one potion), and Skeletrox upgrades tiles to form better gems. To accommodate this new feature, the player can only bring two treasure items along with any chapter.
Related Research Articles
Tobal No. 1 is a fighting video game for the PlayStation developed by DreamFactory and published by Square in 1996. The game was DreamFactory's first release, as well as Square's first release on the CD-based console.
Power Stone 2 is a multiplayer fighting game that built on the innovative gameplay introduced by its predecessor, Power Stone. Power Stone 2 allows up to four players to choose from multiple characters and utilize items such as tables, chairs, and rocks in battle.
AdventureQuest is an online Flash-based single-player role-playing video game started in 2002 and currently developed by Artix Entertainment.
Crash Bash is a 2000 party video game developed by Eurocom Entertainment Software in association with Cerny Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. It is the fifth title in the Crash Bandicoot series and the first in the party genre. The game includes a collection of 28 mini-games playable within three modes of gameplay, as well as eight playable characters from the Crash Bandicoot series.
DK: King of Swing is a 2005 puzzle-platform game developed by Paon and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. King of Swing diverges from the gameplay of other games in the Donkey Kong series, instead featuring characters rotating around pegs to progress similar to the NES game Clu Clu Land. King of Swing has a single-player adventure mode, as well as a competitive multiplayer mode for up to four players. The game received mixed reception.
LCD games are electronic games played on an LCD screen. Since the release of the Zelda Game & Watch game in August 1989, several LCD games based upon the theme of The Legend of Zelda have been licensed by Nintendo to be released for both Japanese and foreign markets. While Zelda was both developed and manufactured by Nintendo, later LCD games would only be licensed by Nintendo. The Legend of Zelda game watch is an LCD wristwatch game produced by Nelsonic as part of their Nelsonic Game Watch series, and Zelda no Densetsu: Kamigami no Triforce is an LCD fighting video game licensed by Nintendo and produced by Epoch Co. for the Barcode Battler II platform, and released only in Japan.
Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure is a 2004 video game released for Game Boy Advance based on the Dragon Ball franchise.
Dragon Ball Z: Legendary Super Warriors is a turn-based fighting game released for the Game Boy Color. It is played with the use of in-game cards for attacks, techniques and support items. The game's story takes place from the start of Dragon Ball Z, the Saiyan Saga, and runs until the end of the Buu Saga. The game includes two extra stories involving Future Trunks's timeline.
Bookworm is a word-forming puzzle video game by PopCap Games. From a grid of available letters, players connect letters to form words. As words are formed, they are removed from the grid and the remaining letters collapse to fill the available space. Players earn more points by creating longer words or words which use less common letters and earn less for smaller words. In November 2006, PopCap Games released a sequel, Bookworm Adventures. Bookworm was released for the Nintendo DS digital distribution service DSiWare on November 30, 2009. It has also been released on the regular Nintendo DS cartridge.
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy is a fighting video game published by Midway Home Entertainment based on the Cartoon Network animated television series of the same name. The game was developed by High Voltage Software and released in North America on September 25, 2006, for the GameCube and PlayStation 2, and on November 19, 2006, for the Wii as a launch title. A companion game for the Game Boy Advance, featuring sidescrolling beat 'em up gameplay, was developed by Full Fat and released on October 31, 2006. The Wii version was released in Australia on March 15, 2007, and in Europe on March 16, 2007. The game pits characters from the series against one another in 3D arena battles using various attacks, items, and environmental hazards to eliminate opponents and be the last one standing.
Little Fighter 2 is a Hong Kong freeware PC fighting game for Windows and is the sequel to the game Little Fighter. Little Fighter 2 was created by Marti Wong and Starsky Wong in 1999, and received a long series of updates.
Zwei: The Arges Adventure is an 2001 action role-playing game developed by Nihon Falcom for Windows, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable. An English version for Windows was released by Xseed Games in January 2018. A sequel, Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection, was released in September 2008.
Zuma's Revenge! is a 2009 tile-matching puzzle video game developed and published by PopCap Games. It was released for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, as a sequel to the earlier 2003 video game, Zuma, and was later ported to Windows Phone.
Puzzle Quest 2 is a video game developed by Infinite Interactive for the Nintendo DS, Xbox Live Arcade, iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7, and Microsoft Windows. It was released on June 22, 2010 by D3 Publisher. A version for the PlayStation Portable was in development, but was cancelled due to sound bugs. It is the sequel to Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, and like its predecessor, it combines role-playing with strategy and puzzle elements. It uses a competitive, Bejeweled-style, "match three game" playfield to simulate combat and other activities common to role-playing games.
Bloons Tower Defense is a series of tower defense games under the Bloons series created and produced by Ninja Kiwi. The game was initially developed as a browser game, built upon the Adobe Flash platform and released in mid 2007. Later games in the series expanded to support various mobile platforms, including Android, iOS, Windows Phone, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DSi, Windows, Linux and MacOS. Games in the Bloons series older than Bloons TD 6 are available through the Ninja Kiwi Archive on Steam.
Plants vs. Zombies is a 2009 tower defense video game developed and published by PopCap Games. First released for Windows and Mac OS X, the game has since been ported to consoles, handhelds, and mobile devices. The player takes the role of a homeowner amid a zombie apocalypse. As a horde of zombies approaches along several parallel lanes, the player must defend their home by putting down plants, which fire projectiles at the zombies or otherwise detrimentally affect them. The player collects a currency called sun to buy plants. If a zombie happens to make it to the house on any lane, the player loses the level.
Word Realms is a single-player role-playing game designed by Asymmetric Publications, including lead designer Zack "Jick" Johnson and designer Kevin Simmons. The game was released in 2013.
Angry Birds Epic RPG was a free-to-play role-playing video game that is the ninth installment in the Angry Birds series, developed by Chimera Entertainment and published by Rovio Entertainment. The game was announced on March 12, 2014 and features turn-based combat and a crafting system. The game was soft launched on March 17 on the Australia, New Zealand and Canada App Store, and was released worldwide on June 12, 2014.
Croc is scrolling platform game for the Game Boy Color developed by British studio Virtucraft and published on 6 June 2000 by THQ under license from Fox Interactive and Argonaut Software. It is a 2D remake of the 1997 3D platform game Croc: Legend of the Gobbos with similar gameplay. The game follows Croc, a crocodile, on a quest to save a race of furry creatures called Gobbos from the evil Baron Dante. The game received mixed reviews from critics.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
