PopCap Games has announced the release of Bookworm for the Nintendo DS. The game has been adapted for the Nintendo DS and is available at retailers nation wide. 

Bookworm is a word game, as you may have guessed, that challenges players to create words using letter tiles. The catch is the tiles have to be next to each other and players need to be able to draw a line from one letter tile to the next to spell a word. The bigger the word the more points that are scored and the bigger chance of a bonus tile appearing. The bonus tiles are power ups that help players along the way. As the game progresses, players will need to over come obstacles like flaming tiles. The flaming tile will need to be used before reaching the bottom of the board or the game will be over.

“Bookworm has set the gold standard in word games, boasting over 100 million downloads to date across a variety of platforms,” said Ed Allard, vice president of strategic development at PopCap. “With the Nintendo DS version, we’ve pulled out all the stops to give players even more deep content and specialized features than ever before.  These include a Multiplayer mode for the first time ever in the popular Bookworm series that allows users to go head-to-head using one or two cartridges, as well as a library building system that provides exciting new game action for both old and new Bookworm players.”

Read the rest of this entry »

PopCap Games has announced the release of Bookworm on the Nintendo DSIWare. The DSiWare version of Bookworm is a new adaptation of the franchise. This marks PopCap’s entry into the DSiWare world. Bookworm will be followed up with an adaptation of Bejeweled Twist. Both games have been optimized for the Nintendo DSi.

Most gamers are probably familiar with PopCap’s hit game, Bookworm, but for those that are not it is a word game. Players match adjoining letters to make as big a word as possible from the given letters. The bigger the word the more points. There are power ups along the way that will help players boost their score.

“We’re leading our foray into the DSiWare market with Bookworm – a game loaded with deep, classic gameplay action that we believe raises the bar for what should be offered in Nintendo’s online store,” said Ed Allard, vice president of strategic development at PopCap. “We’re bringing quality, value and tremendous fun in this downloadable adaptation of Bookworm that’s sure to provide many hours of enjoyment and challenge to DS players everywhere.”

Bookworm is available now for 500 DSi Points (U.S. $5.00).

Read the rest of this entry »

Guess the News is a word game for the iPhone/iPod Touch. The goal of the game is to spell the words correctly using the provided letters. The easy mode will provide letters for the words, but the medium and hard modes only provide where a vowel is.

The words that need to be finished/guessed are taken from news stories. The news comes from all different types of categories, from international news, entertainment news, sports and even random news stories. The stories come from all of the big news sources, such as CNN, CBS and ESPN. A little snippit from the article is given and the player has to figure out the headline for the article.

Figuring out the headline involves taking the selected letters and making a word out of them. There are multiple words to complete and a jumble of letters to use. The letters that can be used for a particular word are highlighted in the jumble of letters. Players use the highlighted letters to make a word in the highlighted spot in the headline. As mentioned above, the easy mode already has letters in the word and the medium and hard levels just have a v to represent where a vowel is in the word.

Players have the option of playing in timed or classic mode. Classic mode allows players to take their time and take as long as they want to complete a word. Timed mode is just as it sounds, a timed mode where players only have a certain amount of time to complete the words. Each time a word is complete the clock is reset for the next word. If a letter is placed in the wrong spot, time is deducted from the clock. If the clock expires before the headline is complete, the game is over.

The control mechanisms are really easy. Players can choose to double tap the letter or drag a letter. Double tapping a letter will cause the letter to be put in the next available slot. If the letter is not correct, it will go to the correct spot automatically, in classic mode, but the player will not get the points for that letter and the letter turns red. If the player chooses to drag a letter, they can drag the letter to any spot in the word. For instance, if you know the word ends in an e, then you can drag the e to the last letter slot in the word.

Each letter has a point value associated with the letter. Each time the letter is placed in the correct position in the word the player gets the points on the letter. Building the words quickly, will result in more points because a bigger multiplier is used. The points build up the meter and players have to get the meter to the blue triangle to progress to the next level in the game. If the blue triangle is not achieved, the game is over and players must start over.

Guess the News is a very different, but extremely fun game. It is refreshing to see different types of games on the iPhone/iPod Touch and not the same old genres of games. This game will be of interest to anyone that enjoys word games such as Wheel of Fortune, Scrabble or even Hang man. Guess the News can be played in small bits of time, but it is really addicting and hard to put down, so good luck with only spending small amounts of time with the game. If you are looking for a good word game, check out Guess the news. The game is only 99 cents until Oct 8th. After Oct 8th the game goes up to $2.99, which is still a fair price for the amount of game you are getting.

One of the best word puzzle franchises is back, as Bookworm Adventures Vol. 2 has been released, the third game in the franchise. The original Bookworm introduced us to Lex, the letter-hungry titular character who chomped and burped letter tiles as people spelled out long words a la Boggle. Lex then starred in his own lite roleplaying game as he wandered the lands fighting enemies with words. He’s back again, and this time facing off against his most dangerous foe yet: his evil twin EviLex.

Those of you unfamiliar with the first Bookworm Adventures, gameplay is simple: you combat enemies by spelling words – unlike Bookworm, the letters need not be adjacent. The longer the words, the more damage they do. Players are awarded potions and gem letter tiles depending on how good the word is. Gem tiles may add special damage effects like poison or burning, or even heal Lex’s wounds.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popcap Games has announced the release of Bookworm Adventures Volume 2 for the PC. Bookworm Adventures Volume 2 is the sequel to Bookworm Adventures and contains three new settings to compete for literary greatness. The game contains three books all wrapped up into one game, but if you don’t want all three books, players can wait until August 19 and download the books individually.

Each book offers a complete story and features 10 chapters. Players will not miss out on any content if they choose to buy the books individually. No matter which version players opt for, players will take on the role of Lex and right all of the wrong in the world by spelling your way to victory. Players attempt to beat their foes by spelling words using ever changing tiles. As soon as a word is spelled the used tiles disappear and new tiles fall from the top of the board mixing things up. The bigger the word the more points. Players also have the help of special tiles that help damage the opponent.

In celebration of the release of Bookworm Adventures Volume 2, PopCap has droppped the price of the original game for the iPhone. It was $4.99, but for the next week players can get the game for $.99

Bookworm Adventures is a great word game and there is no reason for the second version to not be just as good.

Read the rest of this entry »