It's obvious that the developers enjoyed the creative process. The narrative, enemy descriptions, and banter between Lex and his various foes are all very tounge in cheek, and are composed of literary allusions and good old silliness in equal measure. The young, and the young at heart, will get a big kick out it it. In fact, Bookworm Adventures Deluxe may be the most educational game I've ever played, in large part because its so much fun. If I was a child with reading or spelling difficulties, I'd choose this over Hooked on Phonics any day.

The visual and audio presentation are nothing spectacular, but they do the job well. Enemy animations have that jointed-paper-doll feel reminiscent of early/poor flash animations Attacks produce suitably impressive effects, and the backdrops and overall art design are effective at establishing the varied settings. The only voice in the game is Lex, and it's just too cute for words. I never got tired of hearing him say "Fantastic!" or "Amazing!" when I put together a particularly impressive word. The only weak point is the music, which grows repetitively tiresome after a while.

Even after the main quest is complete, there are still lots more things to do. Completing Book 2 unlocks the Minigames: Word Master (five chances to guess the word), Letter Rip (spell as many words as possible using the given letters, within a time limit), and Link N'Spell (spell as many words as possible, trying to use each letter in the large grid twice). As if that's not enough, completing Book 3 gives you access to the arena, where you can fight all the enemies and bosses from the game, but now with time limits!

All in all, Bookworm Adventures Deluxe is a whole lot of linguistic fun in a relatively inexpensive package. You can have multiple profiles, each with their own saved scores, so you can be sure that sooner or later you'll be comparing longest words and minigame scores with your family and friends. Now if only they'd port it to XBLA or the NDS.