A tasty treat for discerning linguaphiles everywhere.

I won't mince words; Bookworm Adventures Deluxe is meant for those who have an unashamed passion for the English language. The game stars Lex the Bookworm, whom you may recognize from his previous outing in Bookworm Deluxe, a flash title from PopCap Games. Both games feature word construction as the central play mechanic, but Bookworm Adventures Deluxe (hereinafter known as Deluxe) takes the original formula and embeds it within a full-fledged narrative adventure.

The premise is simple. You (Lex the Bookworm) must rescue Cassandra, by travelling through three books, each with a classic literary theme: Greek Mythology, 1001 Arabian Nights, and Vampires. Each book contains multiple locations, which Lex visits one by one, battling the enemies contained within. The method of combat is, of course, spelling words.

Those of you familiar with the original game will feel right at home with the letter grid. A welcome change is that letters can be chosen at will, without having to be adjacent to the previous selection. Constructing particularly long words still turns some letter tiles into gems of various sorts, but instead of boosting score they now alter combat. For example, green gems heal Lex, and orange gems increase damage by a certain percentage. Thankfully there is no time constraint in the combat, so enemies will wait with infinite patience while you painstakingly eke out a 16-letter monstrosity, if you like.

Each location (about 9 per book) has a series of baddies that grow increasingly tough, then a final boss, after which Lex receives a special item of some sort. These items provide defense against various enemy special abilities (such as Stun) or boost Lex's attack ability in some way. The Arch of Xyzzy, for instance, boosts the attack value of all words containing an X, Y or Z, and the Wooden Parrot causes double damage for the letter R (it's a pirate joke. Arr!).