In Search of the Lost Words

In Search of the Lost Words (1996) is an enchanting educational game geared toward building reading and comprehension skills in older children. The graphics are charming, and the gameplay quickly becomes immersive, drawing the player into a simple but interesting storyline.

Gameplay

The interface is intuitive and easy to use; a simple point and click selects and names objects, some of which are highlighted for later use in a sidebar. Each object when clicked will reward you with a cute animation, and some are gateways to minigames, mostly memory and match-up challenges, all the way through the main action that give you extra adverbs and adjectives that come in useful later. At the end of each stage, there is a section of the story of the egg, and by extension the creature, that has gaps in it that you must fill with the “lost words” of the title.

Once you’ve found every word (and some of them are not obvious at all, like clicking on a large vase only to have it called a parrot because that’s what was hiding in it) you can proceed to the next phase of your journey.