 | Digital Release | PC November 27, 2006 - PC (NA) January 4, 2007 - Steam December 15, 2007 - PC (NA) |
| Delisting | April - May 2016 |
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| Developer | PopCap Games | |
| Publisher | PopCap Games, Electronic Arts | |
| Available On | Retail (See Below) | |
| Links | Origin Page [Archive] PopCap's Bookworm Page |
Delisting
Bookworm Deluxe, Bookworm Adventures Deluxe and Bookworm Adventures: Volume 2 were delisted from numerous online platforms between April and May of 2016. They were last confirmed available on March 9th at POGO.com, on March 26th at Origin, on April 6th at Steam and May 31st on Big Fish Games.
After the release and demise of the last Bookworm title — Bookworm Heroes for iOS, released in April of 2013 and shut down December 1st, 2014 — PopCap Games, Electronic Arts and even Bookworm’s key creators (now independent) fell silent on the franchise. In interactions that included Bookworm in interviews and on Twitter they would mention other PopCap franchises by name (Plants vs Zombies, Peggle, etc) while glancing over Bookworm.
No further explanation has been given on why the games were removed although their delisting from EA’s own Origin and POGO services implies that an expired license of some sort is the cause. As late as September of 2017 PopCap’s trademark page continued to display all four Bookworm titles and EA’s international trademarks on Bookworm remain active through 2025.
Physical versions of all three titles are available for PC while the original Bookworm is available for the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. Some online gaming portals like SolitaireParadise claim to offer Bookworm but several others that we checked wouldn’t actually load the game. Possibly due to an oversight, the DSiWare version of the original Bookworm remains available in North America as of September 2021.
About the Game
The original Bookworm, introduced in 2002, garnered numerous accolades and has become the best-selling digital word puzzle game of all time, available for Web, PC, Mac, Gameboy, even in-flight on leading airlines. In the new sequel, players fully take on the role of Lex the bookworm – leading him through a series of well-known books and fictional characters which Lex must overcome by forming words from an ever-changing set of letter tiles. From Dracula, the Wolf-man and other famous monsters to legendary Greek, Egyptian and Arabian tales, Lex explores many great works of fiction and takes on scores of enemies, all with their own unique characteristics and powers.
Making longer and more complex words gives Lex greater fighting prowess and generates special letter tiles with special power-up effects of their own. Various potions and treasures provide Lex with added power, defense and dozens of other automatic and one-time abilities to help him defeat the legions of bad guys standing between him and the safety of his beloved Cassandra and the safety of The Great Library. Three “mini-games” give players additional word puzzles to solve, with their level of success determining the number and strength of extra potions and power-up tiles they’ll take with them as they advance from one “chapter” of the game to the next.
- Three story books teeming with over 150 uniquely animated enemies
- Three challenging mini-games: Word Master, Letter Rip and Link N’ Spell
- Special timed Arena mode for super-speedy spellers
- Beautiful 2D graphics, cut-scenes and special effects
- Stunning sound FX and themed music
- Jokes, dialogue and plot twists aplenty
- A glittering Hall of Fame where top scores, best words and other records are kept
- A topical Tome of Knowledge containing information on game progress, secrets discovered, attributes of friends and foes and more