PopCap Releases Bookworm Mobile

PopCap Games has announced that a version of its popular word game Bookworm is now available for a wide range of cellphones.

In Bookworm, players earn points by forming words from letters arranged on a grid. The longer the word, the more points are awarded, while bonus "gem tiles" and "burning tiles" add another dimension of strategy to the game. First launched in 2003 in online and PC versions, Bookworm is the second internally-developed mobile title produced by PopCap. A Blackberry version was released in April.

"Bookworm is very well suited for mobile phones because it can be played in short bursts of a minute or two whenever and wherever the opportunity arises," said PopCap Director of Mobile Business Development Andrew Stein. "At the same time, the game also offers a great challenge for marathon word-builders since it's essentially infinite in its replayability. We've streamlined and optimized the controls so that playing Bookworm on a phone is even easier than via a mouse or keyboard. And the game now references the Oxford English Dictionary, so even the most inveterate "lexophile" will be satisfied."

Bookworm Mobile will include the same Classic and Action game modes of the PC version, a 140,000 word vocabulary, high score and longest word tracking and three distinct input methods to optimize the experience on mobile handsets. The game is currently available on T-Mobile in the U.K. and all major North American mobile carriers.