Word Rescue
Word Rescue is an educational platform game written by Karen Crowther (Chun) of Redwood Games and released by Apogee Software in March, 1992.
Like many Apogee games of the time, Word Rescue includes 3 episodes, with only the first episode playable in the shareware version.
- Episode 1 - Visit Gruzzleville and the Castle
- Episode 2 - Explore Gruzzle Bad Caverns
- Episode 3 - See the spooky Haunted House
Apogee still sells the registered version of this game.
The game is followed by Word Rescue Plus.
The story centers on creatures called "The Gruzzles". Because the Gruzzles cannot read, they steal words out of books, preventing others from reading as well. Playing as a boy or girl, the player must help Benny Bookworm take back all the stolen words and match them with their meanings so he may put them back in the books.
Tropes used in Word Rescue include:
- Big Boo's Haunt: The haunted house levels.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: Benny the Bookworm and one of the types of Gruzzles in the second and third episodes.
- Big Good: Benny.
- Blob Monster: Two types of Gruzzles. One was replaced with a giant bug after the first episode.
- Bottomless Pit: Usually in the form of waterfalls.
- Dungeon Town: The first few levels in the first episode.
- Hello, Insert Name Here
- Impossible Thief: The Gruzzles are stealing words.
- Jump Physics
- The Lost Woods: There are some forest levels.
- Medieval European Fantasy: The castle levels.
- No OSHA Compliance: The factory levels feature open slime pits, open tanks and dripping slime pipes.
- Nerd Glasses: Benny has gigantic ones.
- Our Monsters Are Weird: The Gruzzles.
- Palette Swap: Differently colored versions of some Gruzzles appear in the story.
- Parasol Parachute: Benny apparently gets around the same way as Mary Poppins.
- Underground Level: The cave levels.
- The Wild West: The desert levels are named along this theme.