Bookworm: A Lesson in Addiction

Bookworm Hi ScorePut your vast vocabulary to good use with this cool Java game from PopCap Games called Bookworm. It’s a Java game where you have to select words like in a word jumble. The more letters in a word, the more points and so on. Hard-to-use letters have higher value. If you link a few longer words together, you’ll be granted gold or green blocks, which multiply the value of the word score. If you link too many short words (like 3 or 4 letters), you’ll get flaming blocks that eat through one letter each round until they reach the bottom and burn your library.

Things to look out for:

1. Gold blocks resist fire for 3 turns.
2. Under the bookworm is a word you can build for bonus points.
3. Always look for an ‘s’ or ‘ed’ to attach to words.
4. Try words that don’t look like words. Often it thinks they are.
5. Some words are simply not recognized, often the longer ones. Imagine my dismay to find that ‘erection’ with 2 gold blocks and a green one didn’t count.
6. Don’t click the bookworm unless you really absolutely have to. It punishes you with a lot of fire blocks, especially at higher levels.
7. Don’t waste a big word near the end of a level. If you’re about to level up, you should find a lower-point one to just make it, then use the big word at the start of the next level.
8. Word bonus points don’t count towards the level progress

It’s possible to play scrupulously and get insanely high scores. I would recommend a strategy of always getting rid of fire blocks as quickly as possible, even if you have to use short words. They just multiply otherwise. Then it will gift you with a golden or green block.

And now to explain the accompanying graphic. The reason I know so much about this game is that Kath and I went through an addiction of sorts in which we didn’t shut the iMac off for 4 nights because we were always playing the same game. The score you see there is built up over 4 nights, making about 500,000 points per night. It finally got shut off by accident, but, honestly, good riddance.

The most we managed to score on a single word is (from lowest to highest):

1. Slutty − 10,800
2. Glazers − 12,180
3. Lugged − 23,760
4. Gonad − 26,100 (imagine my delight when that one lined up with 3 gold blocks)

Enjoy.