Games

Advance Your Vocabulary With Bookworm For iOS – Review

Bookworm for iOS is Popcaps foray into the popular game genre of word puzzles. Popcap the creator of the hugely successful Plant versus Zombies and Bejewelled series have in Bookworm created an addictive yet challenging word game that really encourages you to improve your vocabulary.

So why not dust off the thesaurus and take a moment to get acquainted with your new invertebrate study partner.

Goal

You must form as many words as you possibly can. Much like Scrabble you have to form real words found in the dictionary. However unlike Scrabble you have to form your words by connecting the lettered tiles to one another rather than setting them yourself. This will limit what you can and cannot spell by the position of the tiles, good thing there is a scramble feature.

Overall Gameplay

You will form words by connecting letters to one another that are adjacent to each other. There are fire tiles that will continually burn and if they completely burn-through you will lose the game, this is a clever way of saying your being timed.

If you click on stats at the main menu then you can see your best words, longest words and high scores. Click on options and you can turn on hints that will assist you during a game if you get stuck, I recommend keeping this off, you don’t need anyone holding your hand right?  You can also allow the game to show word definitions and adjust the music and effect volume.

Now at the bottom of this option screen will be a “Confirm to Scramble” switch. If you shake your device it will scramble the tiles but sometimes you might shake your device by mistake. Keep this option switched “on” and if you find yourself shaking your device by mistake Bookworm will ask if you want to scramble. If you keep this option switched off then anytime your device shakes the board will shake regardless if you want it to or not.

Controls

Tap the letter you wish to use in a word then tap the next letter and so on until you form the word you wish. When you finish spelling out the word you can then tap on the last letter of the word again to submit it or click the word bubble at the top of the screen.

Pros: Addictive, Fun, Helps build vocabulary

Cons: A bit mundane, lack of game modes

The Verdict

It takes a lot to get me interested in a word game and holding my attention is even harder. I like hardcore fast pace action so when I am given a slow paced vocabulary game where I have to form words I am always reluctant. Bookworm is one of those miracle word games that somehow got my attention and kept me playing so I do recommend this game. I am a bit on the unsure side when it comes to the price though, $2.99 seems a bit steep for what you get.

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About the author

Chris

I've been a passionate evangelist for Apple and the Macintosh throughout my working life, my first love was a Quadra 605 working with a small creative agency in the south of Norfolk UK in the mid 1990's, I later progressed to other roles in other Macintosh dominated industries, first as a Senior graphic designer at a small printing company and then a production manager at Guardian Media Group. As the publishing and printing sector wained I moved into Internet Marketing and in 2006 co-founded blurtit.com which grew to become one the top 200 visited sites in the US (according to Quantcast), at its peak receiving over 15 million visits per month. For the last ten years I have worked as an Affiliate and Consultant to many different business and start ups, my key skill set being online marketing, on page monetisation, landing page optimisation and traffic generation, if you would like to hire me or discuss your current project please reach out to me here.

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