I was a big fan of the original Bookworm Adventures – an amalgamation of the word spelling genre of casual games mixed with some light RPG elements and a whole lot of humor. After proving to be a success, it was only inevitable that a sequel would make its way to fans sooner or later. The time is finally upon us, as Bookworm Adventures Volume 2 is here. It's a lot more of the same, but when the foundation is so solid, you don't want anyone coming around and messing up the place. Besides, where else can you beat up a Shaolin monk by spelling the word fish?

Title Screen

You play as Lex, a bright green bookworm, who wakes up ready to spar, all so that he can get to his breakfast. After chomping down on his morning meal, a goose being chased by a wolf suddenly bombards him, and off they are whisked to a magical world – the world of nursery rhymes and fairytales to be exact. Can Lex manage to save Mother Goose and learn just what is happening? Besides a few brief exchanges at the end of a level and the comic book layout after a book has been completed, the story isn't too involving. It's a quaint story, but what really compels you to keep advancing forward is the rock solid gameplay and copious amounts of humor.

Much like the first game, Bookworm Adventures Volume 2 is a hilarious romp that tickles the funny bone from every angle; it's not rip-roaring laugh until you cry funny, but it will have you grinning from ear to ear constantly. You'll laugh at some of Lex's quick one-liners he throws out in certain situations. You'll laugh at the Tomb of Knowledge – you really do owe it to yourself to start reading it once it's unlocked – as you get everything from milk carton requests for finding Gretel to a poem about the moon that eventually dovetails into nothing. You'll even laugh at the mere visual of many of the game's enemies, such as a bowl of cool porridge to a cow with jet boots, who kick more butt than you'd expect.

Gameplay is presented like a side-scrolling adventure, where Lex wriggles his way towards the far right of the level in order to typically obtain a treasure, while having to deal with any enemy that comes across his path. When Lex goes into battle mode, a 4x4 tile of 16-letters appears, with various vowels and consonants randomly used. As Lex's turn for battle comes up, it's your job as the player to look at the letters presented, and try to create the biggest word you can manage to do damage to your foe. Unlike other spelling games where letters must be touching each other for them to be used, Bookworm Adventures Volume 2 lets you use any tile that's on the board no matter where they're placed. Spelling a word is as easy as clicking on each tile in order and then clicking Submit to register the word as an attack; the game's dictionary is pretty robust, as it will automatically tell you when a usable word has been spelled, though there are some words (mostly naughty) that aren't in its in-game dictionary. Once the player's attack is done they then have to wait for their opponent to attack and then they can attack again until the player or enemy loses all their hearts (hit points in the game).

Massive Attack

Enemies are given various moves to use, which changes from enemy to enemy. While one enemy may only be able to damage Lex with a simple attack, others can do such moves as poison Lex, make him bleed, temporarily stun him, or use power-ups to temporarily increase their abilities. While most attacks do direct damage to Lex, some attacks affect the quality of the board, as it can temporarily change tiles so that if they're used in a word they won't do any damage to completely locking letters for a time.

As in most RPGs, Lex gets more powerful as he gains experience by killing foes, which boosts stats like health, defense, and attack power. At a point later on in the game, spelling larger words even grants Lex special gem tiles, which when used in battle can do everything from healing Lex to poisoning enemies. Levels also typically end with the reward of a treasure, which further help power Lex. Powerup treasures include making Lex hit harder or take more damage, resisting stuns, and much more. A brand-new addition comes by way of fellow travelers, which you can enlist as partners in your quest to learn what's happening. Instead of being able to take three different magical items into any level, players now choose two items and a helping partner. The first helping partner you'll receive is Mother Goose, whose power is being able to give you a health potion after every four turns; an especially worthwhile ability.

Lex can also gather potions to help in his journey, which can heal him, increase his attack power, or remove negative status effects from the board. The potions can be gathered from fallen enemies from time-to-time, but for the most part potions are gained through minigames that pop-up occasionally or after you've been defeated. The minigames are actually a nice bonus treat and help break-up the repetition of battling with words. The minigames are usually timed or bound by rules, whereas a regular turn when Lex is battling has no limit, letting you take as much time as you need. The minigames from the first game return for an encore appearance, but there are a few new ones too. One minigame has you quickly spelling words to try and race someone up a hill, while another gives you coins for each word spelled; long words reward more coins, which in turn reward potions and power-up jewel tiles for filling up rows.

Fairytale Land

You'll need the help of the potions and the various partners and enchanted items you receive too, as the enemies of the game have several new abilities to mess with you, and prove quite challenging. Besides having the same arsenal of abilities as the first game, enemies can now wear armor to help make your word matches do less damage, lay warp tiles upon the board to make letters randomly switch each turn (often to letters that aren't easily used), and even put up shields that can absorb and reflect damage for a number of turns.

Technically the game is as solid as before, featuring the same high production values of the first game. Of course, that also means that the game excels and suffers from some of the same things as before. For instance, the recycling of music – it's been improved, but it's still not the best it could be. The game has improved in some technical areas though, which while might be minor or barely noticed by first-time players, they're a welcome addition to returning fans. First up, the game has a few new animations, such as the way in which Lex attacks. Lex will spit a tile at foes, produce a hammer background for headbutting, and even become a swinging wreckingball for the longer word attacks. The game also features a lot more in the way of animation, which is paritally thanks to the enemies themselves and the way in which they attack; you'll see nails being thrown, tigers pouncing, and monks swinging objects like metal yo-yos and sausage links.

Bookworm Adventures Volume 2 is a game I'd recommend to anyone; it doesn't matter if you're already a fan of the genre or not. The game does so many things right you won't even want to consider the idea that another word-spelling game out there could topple it. You could consider it, I suppose, but you'll find there's not another game in this genre as top-notch as Bookworm Adventures Volume 2. Buy it. Play it. Love it.

Buy The Game Today At PopCap

Score