In the 2007 Interactive Achievement Awards, Bookworm Adventures won the "Downloadable Game of the Year".

[3] Although the direct sales model used by the company avoids various distribution and retail fees, this still represents one of the most expensive investments in the genre to date.

John Vechey, PopCap's director, indicated that this did seem to be a departure from the previous model, noting that "A couple years ago, the prevailing wisdom was that it took three guys, six months and $100,000 to make a casual game.

"[3] The player takes on the role of Lex the Bookworm (voiced by the Chief Creative Officer of PopCap, Jason Kapalka) through a number of stages, battling creatures along the way (which are largely based on Greek mythology, One Thousand and One Nights and Gothic fiction, while the foes in the game's sequel are based on fairy tales, Journey to the West and science fiction).

However, unlike more traditional role-playing games where players can injure their opponents with arms or magic, enemies in Bookworm Adventures are damaged by forming words.

The "scramble" feature from the original title returns in Bookworm Adventures, which replaces the letters currently on the grid with an entirely new set, at the cost of forfeiting a turn, so that the enemy gets a "free" attack.

Each turn, the player can form a single word, while enemies use one of their available attacks to damage Lex, inflict debuffs to him, heal or buff themselves, or manipulate the tiles in the grid.

In the sequel, the player can only bring along at most two treasure items, but can also have a companion, which gives a beneficial effect every four turns.

The Tome of Knowledge contains all information of the enemies, their attacks and abilities, their flavor text, and secrets that the player has found.

As per its name, this mode allows the player to play three different mini-games (six in the sequel) and aim for a high score.

Clips and Giggles is where the comic introductions to each book and theme music of Bookworm Adventures can be found and replayed any time the player wishes.

For unclear reasons, Electronic Arts, the rights holder which acquired PopCap Games in 2011, removed Bookworm Adventures from both Steam and EA's Origin in 2016, making the game impossible to purchase legally via digital download, a situation that has persisted since.

There are eight badges of four levels (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum), which require the player to do some certain task; for example, defeating an enemy with Poison damage, spelling a 12-letter word, or using Diamond gems frequently.

Also introduced in the sequel are companions, which act similarly to treasures, but have a certain effect that is activated every four turns.