Bee Spelled, a new word-spelling game that plays a lot like Bookworm Adventures, has been released by The Dumpling Dimension and is available from the app store. Though PopCap released a Bookworm game a few months ago, it played more like Word Scramble or Wordulous or any of the countless others. Bee Spelled finally fills the void and they do a darn nice job of it.
Bee Spelled Pros:
- Pick-up-and-play quality
- Clean, easy-to-use interface
- Global leaderboards
- Dictionary with over 200,000 words
Bee Spelled Cons:
- None as of this review
There is but a single gameplay mode with three difficulty levels. The goal is to spell words from the 4 x 4 grid of available letters in order to overpower your opponent. The longer the word, the more powerful your attack. Whereas most spelling games require that the letters that form your word be adjacent, Bee Spelled allows you to choose any of the 16 letters in any order that you desire, increasing your options greatly. You stand to reap huge scores by using the special tiles which you receive for creating long words. Each time you spell a word, Chub the Bee attacks his opponent, dealing damage indicated on the opponent’s health bar. The opponent, if able, attacks back each time. Deplete the opponent’s health bar before he depletes Chub’s to move on in the game.
Special attacks include freezing, burning, and blasting the opponent with some crazy shoulder cannon. Green tiles also help you to heal, increasing your health bar. There is no timer, so you have plenty of time to think through your letters and find the best word. All attacks are carried out by the cartoon characters through humorous animations above the letter grid. There is also plenty of “trash talk” between the characters, rife with bee-inspired puns. After completing 10 levels, the game ends and your score is recorded. This keeps gameplay from getting repetitive and stale and requires you to choose words carefully, as you don’t have much time to run up the score. It also gives the game a nice pick-up-and-play quality.
Graphically, the game has a clean, easy-to-use interface with bright colors and fun 2D characters. The only in-game music is a simple loop played over the main menu. Sound effects accompany the attacks. Controls are touch-based. Tap each letter to add it to the word. If you have a valid word, the Attack button will light up. Tap it to submit the word and launch your offensive. Tap letters in the created word to undo. Letter buttons are large and easily tapped, so there are no control issues whatsoever.
Replay value is great, with global leaderboards to track the world’s best spellers, as well as enjoyable gameplay and a dictionary with over 200,000 words. You gain higher ranks as you play, starting from beginner and working your way through the level system. The game even tracks your best words so that you can relive your triumphs. The quest to find the longest words is exciting and should keep word nuts busy for a while. At $0.99, Bee Spelled is a 5-Dimple gem that has us buzzing.
