Word Rescue

Word Rescue is a children's educational platformer published by Apogee in March 1992.

The gozzles, petty, evil monsters who never learned to read, decided that everyone else didn’t need it either, and stole the words from all the books! Benny's Book Worm really did not like such a nasty act, so he asks his young friends for help. He needs the player to combine the words with their meanings, after which the worm will be able to return them to the books.

The gameplay looks as follows: the level scattered words originally hidden by a question mark. When a player touches such a sign, a word is displayed in its place, and various pictures appear on the level. Among the latter, you need to find and take the one that fits the selected word. As soon as they are all assembled, Benny will appear and take them to the magic book, and in return will give the key to exit the level, so that we can help him further. There are only seven words at the stage, so, despite the generally small size of the location, you will have to run a lot.

The Grassroots will not give up just like that and will try to take away the collected words. To avoid this, it is enough to avoid contact with them, and if enemies drive the player into a dead end, Benny will come to the rescue - he can pour slime on everyone the player points to (you don’t need to aim, just look towards the monster), - the enemy freezes this thinner and is no longer a danger. The supply of mucus is limited, but is replenished at the beginning of each level (only if the complexity is not the highest), in addition, in the process you can find buckets with this substance. And even at the highest difficulty, the initial number of enemies does not exceed three, so most often it’s quite easy to get around or trap them - if there are no holes at the level where the enemy can fall, then there is a possibility that Grazzle will get stuck on any ledge ( this is a local infrequent bug). You can spawn opponents if you make a mistake in choosing a picture - the creature immediately materializes over the head of the main character and soon begins to pursue him.

There are also separate letters at the level that make up one of the words present here. If you collect them sequentially, then we will be credited with a small bonus to the final account. There are also rewards for collecting all the books scattered around, for the absence of errors when matching words with a picture, and also - apparently, as a gift from Benny - a bonus for the player not to bother him or use such a valuable pink liquid, being smart and sleight of hand.

Making a mistake in choosing a picture without knowing the English language (or understanding what is still depicted) will not give a hint - the W key brings up a small window with a list of words and their corresponding images.

In just three episodes, we have to visit the village, built around the castle, in a network of caves and in a haunted mansion. As you progress through the passage, there will be hidden passages in the walls; they will have to be searched by typing, since they do not give themselves away; at some levels there are real labyrinths, the way out of which is not so easy to find. Unobtrusive light music will accompany the journey - only a couple of songs.

In general, Word Rescue is a pretty sweet, uncomplicated arcade game, but with an important message: don't be like the Grazzles and read more!