War of the Words: Bookworm vs Wordsworth for iPhone

The iPhone is perfect for casual gaming, and few genres are more suited to casual fun than word games. They don’t need to be fast paced to be exciting or challenging, and you can even tell yourself that you’re doing your brain and vocabulary a service, if you're one of those types that must always feel they're doing something constructive with their time.

Two of the genre’s biggest hitters are remarkably similar games. Bookworm from Popcap has a big brand on its side, being a port of an already massively successful PC game. The newcomer is Wordsworth from 99Games Online. It may not have the gamer cred of Bookworm, but it is cheaper and has a few neat tricks up its sleeve.

Which one should you lay down the cash for? We’re going to find out, although it may not be an easy ride. The argument is split up into what we consider to be the most important categories in a word game. Then we'll see who’s left standing at the end.

Graphics
There’s a clear winner in this field. Opting for a far more sober look, Wordsworth can’t compete with the production values of Popcap’s Bookworm. It’s a lush and far more animated game in comparison. Wordsworth looks a little bare and basic after experiencing Bookworm's bright lights.

If you’re all about the words, this may not mean much to you, but the arresting visual experience offered by Bookworm does keep you playing longer than you might otherwise do.

Winner: Bookworm


Word List
Wordsworth gains some ground on the word list front. We’ve no doubt that Bookworm’s list is also wonderful, but Wordsworth lets you select from a number of different word lists. You can have the TWL and SOWPODS lists, which are used in official Scrabble tournaments, or the ENABLE list, which includes over 172,000 words.

Most people would be able to play quite happily without ever thinking about which word list they're using, but for real wordplay aficionados, the ability to choose may be a deciding factor in this word war.

Winner: Wordsworth


Game Modes
Wordsworth offers Classic and Timed game modes. Classic is an endless mode that lets you choose words in leisurely fashion, while Timed imposes a limit on how long you can take to pass each level. The gameplay remains more-or-less the same apart from this timing difference.

Oddly enough, Bookworm offers the same modes, with pretty much the same core timing difference too. However, Bookworm is also enriched by a greater diversity of special tiles, which will give you score bonuses, or threaten to end your game completely. These extra elements add an action-flavoured twist to the game that nudges it above Wordsworth’s simpler gameplay.

Winner: Bookworm

Controls
Both games use similar control methods. You can either drag your finger along a string of tiles in order to make a word, or tap on each letter if you need to take a little more time figuring out the letters you want to use.

Bookworm manages to make slightly better use of the iPhone’s abilities by adding a shake-to-scramble feature. This scrambles up the letter board when you shake your device. Far from a gimmick, this means you can get out of any frustrating, head-scratching moments if you’re not in the mood. There’s a price to pay for doing so, but it is yet another little feature that enriches the Bookworm experience.

Winner: Bookworm


Conclusions
This is one of the toughest versus features we’ve done so far. Both Bookworm and Wordsworth are games that are thoroughly worth checking out but, when they’re so similar, buying both of them seems plain silly.

As much as we’d like to back the underdog and sing Wordsworth’s praises, we can’t help but like Bookworm a little more. It has the flair that Wordsworth lacks, and it has a few little additional features that shine like little diamonds under the game’s surface.

There is the question of price, mind. Bookworm costs more than twice the price of Wordsworth. If you’re feeling the pinch, Wordsworth is still a great word game that’s worthy of a place on anyone’s home screen. If you can afford the difference though, we recommend plumping for Bookworm.

Overall Winner: Bookworm