Review By: Michael Teplitsky
Published: April 7, 2006

Every now and again a game appears that seems nothing special at first glance, but later proves to be so addictive that your concerned family will be forced to commit you into a recovery program. In my particular case, I am referring to “Thomas and the Magical Words”.

It begins with a generic story of a wizard who runs a magical pet shop with the help of his young nephew. Sure enough, the kid is more trouble than he is help. He is also a sloppy student, and clumsy to boot. When his uncle orders him to study after he brings home an F, he manages to fall down while carrying his books and makes an utter mess of the store. It’s the straw that broke the camel’s back, the old man has had enough. He casts a spell on the boy which puts him (and quite a few magical pets) inside a book.

The only way to get out is to form bridges from point A to point B, which is what you will be doing. The bridges are created by forming words with the random letters that you are given. As the game progresses, you will find the difficulty gradually increases because of various obstacles. Aside from having to worry about forming words, you will also have to build your bridges around different impassible locations.

Fortunately, you can collect many different power-ups which will aid you in your quest. Some act as a wild card, some will refresh your selection of letters, others will give you a hint and some will allow you to destroy a letter which you already placed. Power-up can be obtained in several different ways. You can either form a word over a certain square, which contains the desired bonus, or you can bridge to small islands where magical pets are stranded. If you do so, you will free the pet and they will graciously reward you with more magical items.