Have you ever thought what a hero’s life would be like if he had to wander through the land cleaving mighty foes with nothing but words? It is said that the pen is mightier than the sword; and certainly, in Bookworm Adventures Deluxe, this statement has never been truer.
Bookworm Adventures Deluxe is the second installment in the Bookworm game series. Unlike the first game, a tile puzzler in the same thread as Tetris, Scrabble and Boggle, Bookworm Adventures Deluxe is a story about Lex the Bookworm and his adventure to save Cassandra the Oracle from an evil force. Lex’s adventure begins with Cassandra’s cry for help from one of the books in the Great Library. Professor Codex sends Lex into the book with a stroke of his magic pen. Lex finds himself in the world of ancient Greeks and must battle his way through all the recognizable Greek antagonists from mythological tales and so establishes the gameplay.
Lex has to fight through three books to rescue Cassandra from the perils of evil. First he battles through Greek mythos in the tale of Oedipus Lex. The second book, entitled Arabian Knight, is filled with the mystic creatures like djinn and the sphinx. These 10 chapters parody the Arabian tales, such as Sinbad and Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves. The last book Lex must adventure through is the Lexonomicon. Anyone familiar with H.P. Lovecraft, Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley will recognize the final 10 chapters. The setting is dark and moody, filled with monsters and the horror that only tales of deep Transylvania or the lair of a mad scientist can muster.
Bookworm Adventures Deluxe is really a fun little play-on-words game. The parody is all lighthearted and fun, like the use of Lex (short for Lexicon) or Codex as character names. I thought the game was witty and lots of fun. Most notably by how the levels were named and what they were parodying.
The graphics for this game were simple, animated vector graphics. The animations aren’t too detailed. However, the movement of the characters completely melds with the art style. The characters are cute and fun, resembling animated comic book style art. The music and sound effects help blend the action on screen and keep the game entertaining. Though simple, the graphics and sound are a lot of fun to watch and listen to.
As far as the actual gameplay, Lex uses a 4x4 tile of scrambled letters. He must create words (three letters or more) to battle and defeat his enemies. As letters are used, new letters drop to replace the consumed letters. This helps keep the board fresh; however, there are times when the use of the scramble button is needed. This results in a loss of a turn for Lex but completely scrambles the board and available letters. This technique is especially great when your 4x4 grid is filled with Us and Cs and nothing else, which happened to me on two separate occasions.
One interesting gameplay element is the use of weapons. Lex can defeat the bosses in a given level and take their prized possessions for use in later levels. Each weapon (or armor piece) has a special ability that is useful against different enemy types, considering each enemy has its own special attack. One of my favorite items was the Boots of Theseus, which had a special ability of 100 percent resist to Stun Attacks. I found these especially helpful in the earlier levels.
Besides the adventure mode, Lex can unlock other gameplay modes. After completing each book, new areas and gameplay opportunities are unlocked in the main menu. During adventure mode, Lex will have the opportunity to play and unlock three minigames: Word Master, Letter Rip and Link ’N’ Spell. During adventure mode Lex can win potions and special tiles to help defeat enemies while in the minigames areas. However, once they are unlocked and available in the main menu, players can access them and play for high scores.
In all, I really enjoyed Bookworm Adventures Deluxe. If you are a fan of adventure games and a fan of the original game, you will definitely enjoy this game. However, I can see many Bookworm fans not getting into the adventure game, based on gameplay preferences. But, if you are a fan of the side-scrolling action of the 1980s and love puzzles, you are in luck. Bookworm Adventures Deluxe is a fun action-adventure puzzle hybrid with lots of wit and humorous parody.
