TUAW's Daily Mac App: Bookworm
If you're into word games, today's Daily Mac App will be right up your street. Bookworm, from PopCap, is a word game that combines Boggle-style word making with Bejeweled-style tile removal.
You're presented with a board of tiles filled from the top that's seven columns wide and seven to eight tiles high. You link adjacent tiles to make words with a minimum length of three letters and for each word you make you get points based on its length and letter types. Each word removes those used tiles from the board.
The "Classic game" is simple enough, but as you progress you must deal with "burning tiles" that burn through letters, dropping down one tile per turn. If they reach the bottom of the board it's game over, so you have to use them in a word pretty fast. Other special tiles come into play as rewards. Green tiles appear randomly and will increase your word score if you include them. Gold tiles are earned by creating words with five letters or more, and are worth even more. Diamond and sapphire tiles are also available for massive scores. You can boost your score by creating the suggested bonus words that pop up too.
There's also an "Action game" that drops many more burning tiles requiring you to match words as quick as you can to survive. It's a great game for word game fans and can get pretty addictive as you level up at the end of each round.
Bookworm is available for US$6.99 from the Mac App Store, directly from PopCap if you're not on Snow Leopard or Lion and is available in the browser for free too.
