Bookworm

"Web Games? On the GBA? Well, this one works..."

Bookworm for the GBA is a conversion of one of PopCap Games' most popular workplace time-wasters. It also happens to be one of my all-time favorite web-games. Hopefully, there will be more games like this coming in the future; as the handheld medium is perfect for the type of pick-up and play interface that Bookworm offers.

Gameplay: 8 The crux of this game is simply to link tiles, presented on the screen in columns, to form words of 3 or more letters. New tiles are then dropped from the top of the screen.
Scoring is based on the length of the word and bonuses are awarded for words containing green or gold tiles. The web version of the game seems to flow a little better since you can click and drag your mouse cursor, then release it on the last letter of the word you are creating to submit the word. On the GBA version, you can hold down the A button (to 'click') and move the D-pad, in a kind-of-dragging motion, but let's face it ... it's just not the same thing. This is a minor issue though, and you quickly get used to clicking on one letter at a time while creating your words.
There's an incentive to make longer words; too many 3-letter words and red tiles will start to drop. These tiles burn the tile under them if they don't get used to create a word. If they burn through to the bottom of the screen, it's Game Over!
An annoyingly cute worm (THE Bookworm, as it were) sits in the left third of the screen, reacting when words are submitted (he eats them ... cute, huh?) and provides the occasional voice responses (''Great'' ''Watch out!'' ''Bonus!'')

Story: N/A Nothing. Nada. Zilch. It's a Web Game folks.

Graphics/Sound: 8 The visuals seem to have taken a big hit, both in resolution and functionality, The letter tiles are missing the small dots, indicating their value; in the web version, tiles with one, two or three dots in the lower left corner indicated higher scoring letters. Another minor issue, but it's still a minus and IMO, could have easily been included. The screen layout is also a bit different, with the GBA version only showing a small number in the lower left corner of the screen indicating your level. The tiles themselves look flat and drab and there are visible 'jaggies' everywhere. Overall, the graphics are okay, but some extra attention could have made them shine.
Sounds are adequate for a puzzle-type game, but I suggest you disable the music. It's pure repetitive torture.

Playtime/Replayablility: 10 Infinite replayability! This is one title I'll be playing every day; a quick game can be played at any time, for any length of time and quickly saved on the fly. Absolutely a MUST have. (Dare I mention the 'Edutainment' value of Bookworm? Kids will be kept occupied and will be learning without even knowing it!)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/15/04