I don’t review games too often, but when I stumbled across Lex Venture: A Crossword Caper the other day, I knew I had to say a few things about it. I’ve really been digging this great game. It’s a kid-friendly, Scrabble-esque puzzle game that is very fun, but also very challenging.

The premise of the game revolves around Eugene and his friends, who have just invented a word machine for their school’s science fair. Unfortunately, someone has broken the machine and made off with the parts, so it’s up to Eugene and his friends to get it back.

The parts have been scattered out across 37 different stages and it’s up to the player to gather them together. Each stage is set out in a grid formation and the player must build “word bridges” out of a random set of letter tiles that they will walk across. It’s not as easy as it sounds, especially when you have to go left or up. Sometimes you run into tight spaces and it can get tough to come up with words that are long enough to reach your destination as you spread out across the level. Other obstacles crop up in the form of puddles and rocks that you can’t place tiles on. Then, you have the bullies and dogs to contend with. Dogs will grab the parts and move them around the stage while bullies will smash a letter tile — usually the first or last tile — of the words you build, essentially limiting how far you can travel. It gets really tough but you have ways of contending with these obstacles. Bombs can clear paths out of the debris scattered throughout a stage and will also send dogs and bullies back to their starting points. Other powerups include a bunch of balloons which certain characters can use to float to different areas of the stage. These powerups are limited, of course, so you’ll have to use them wisely. Over the course of the game you’ll have to deal with 5 bosses that will really put your vocabulary and spelling to the test, so be ready to face a tough challenge!

The game features colorful, pleasant graphics that kids can identify with but presents enough challenging gameplay that adults can enjoy it too. The story is presented like a comic book, featuring the characters you’ll meet and engage with over the course of the game. The presentation is very well done. I especially enjoyed the fun, catchy music. Jazzy riffs and upbeat tempos help keep the game enjoyable even during those moments of frustration when you just can’t build a word out of the given letter tiles. The game can be educational, too, as it features a built-in dictionary that explains the meaning of words as they are spelled out on the board. Keep in mind, it doesn’t cheat — it won’t tell you how to spell a word, but it can be big help when you aren’t sure if the word you’re trying to spell is a real word or not. This is very helpful for those moments when you don’t seem to have enough letters and find yourself in a real pinch.

Lex Venture requires a PC running Windows 2000, XP, or Vista and at least an 800MHz CPU and 256MBs of RAM. It sells for $19.95. You can purchase the game through the free trial version which you can download through this link. The trial lasts for an hour, after which you’ll have to purchase to continue. I highly recommend checking it out!

If you’re still not sure and you’d rather not go through the download, watch this trailer: