If it's not a game being released for consoles or sold in a box at a brick and mortar store, we as gamers tend to overlook them, regardless of the fact that it actually might be a great little gem of a game. More and more people are discovering these casual games, however, making it a profitable business that has been booming as of late, as more people find themselves with a decreased amount of time in which to pursue their long-time love of gaming. Whether you've got a weekend to yourself or only a few minutes throughout your hectic day, let us point you in the direction of some casual games that might just be what you're looking for.

Welcome to Casual Fridays, where you can loosen the tie, put on some jeans, and take it easy. This week's game is Bookworm, the first title in the series that spawned – one of my personal favorites – the Bookworm Adventure series.

Bookworm Board

Forget about matching words so that you can attack a ninja. Forget about using potions to heal yourself when your life is about gone. Instead, when it comes to Bookworm, just be prepared to spell until you just can't spell no more. There are no enemies. There isn't a quest or story to speak of whatsoever. It's just you, a board filled with letters, and the desire to push yourself each subsequent time you play the game in order to get that new high score.

Bookworm is presented as a 7878787 tiled board of 52 individual spots, each filled with either a consonant or vowel. Unlike the change that the Bookworm Adventure series introduced, you can't mix and match tiles on the board at your whim in order to make a word. Instead, in Bookworm, words can only be made by tiles touching them. Once a word is formed the game rewards the player based on how long the word was and what letters the player used. After the word has been registered, the blocks are removed and those above it fall into place to fill the now vacant spots. Players can either individually click the letters in order and then click the submit button or either click the first letter of the word, and then while still holding the left mouse button drag the cursor over the rest of the letters. After the word you desire has been highlighted, let go of the mouse button in order to automatically register the word. While on your pursuit to reach your high score, there are several enhancements to help increase your point total. First up, the game will reveal special bonus words, which net you more points if you can spell them. Secondly, different colored tiles appear after certain point totals are reached when forming a word, and these colored tiles, when used, will reward you with more points.

When playing the classic mode, at random intervals dark red-hot tiles will drop onto the board. After each word the player creates, the red tile will burn up the tile below it, slowly cascading down until finally reaching the bottom of the board. If you're unable to use the red tile's letter before it falls off the bottom of the board, it's game over for you and time to start over. You have some things to help you overcome these red tiles, such as choosing to scramble the letters up and hoping that better letters will fall where you need them. A drawback to scrambling the board, however, is the fact that the game will punish you by dropping more red tiles at the top of the screen. If you're playing the active mode, however, red tiles spawn based on time.

Spell That Word

My biggest problem with Bookworm is coming into the game having already played the spinoff sequels first. It's like playing Final Fantasy VII and then trying to back and play the first Final Fantasy game. Sure, it's still a fun game, but after seeing how far the game series has come, going back to its roots shows just how ancient the previous installments were. Bookworm is a solid game, as it's challenging to try and survive for as long as you can, but once a game is done you get your high score and that's that. I wasn't compelled to keep trying to see how perfect a score I could get. I also had a hard time getting used to the original word matching system, where tiles have to be conjoined in order to use them in a word.

Graphically there isn't too much that's special, as it's the same board and same visuals used all the time. The only standout effect comes from when a red tile falls off the board and burns everything to ash. The sound work is equally average. The sound of a burp or the chime of a word sound fine, but the background music recycles too much and is just too goofy and comical sounding; I turned my speakers off not too long after starting the game because I found it so unbearable.

It's a fun and challenging game for fans of the word genre of casual games, but there wasn't enough depth for me to want to play more than once every so often. The one thing I am thankful for is at least this game exists, because if it didn't, its amazing sequels/spinoffs would never have been made.

Buy The Game Today At PopCap

Score