BOB WAS A BOMB Play full screen

A free word game you play like a shooter · mouse, keys or touch · runs last a couple of minutes · it's loaded below

Shoot the M. Now it's BOB.

Words fall, and every word does what it says. Move the mouse to aim your caret (the blue mark at the bottom) and click to delete one letter. Click the paper below to start. Words fall, and every word does what it says. Every touch fires from your caret (the blue mark at the bottom), even the touch that starts a drag, so drag to aim, lift, then tap the same spot to delete one letter. Sideways is roomier. Tap the paper below to start.

That's the whole game, not a trailer. On your first run, the first BOMB falls slowly and a pencil note tells you which letter to shoot.

Play full screen Turn your phone sideways for a bigger board. To scroll this page, swipe beside the paper, not on it. Arrow keys and Space work too. R restarts, M mutes.

Read it, then shoot it

Every enemy is a word, and it acts like one. BOMB lands and blows up. CROW weaves down and homes in on your column. HOWL hovers and drops ink on you. BEAR lands and charges along the line.

You get one move. A shot deletes one letter, and if what's left is a friendly word, the thing turns into that thing.

Notebook paper with falling words. BOMB has just lost its M, which spins away; the word now reads BOB, highlighted yellow, saying hi. PLANET, CROW and SWORD are still falling.
Drawn by the game itself, on a board set up for the picture (PLANET doesn't fall this early in a real run). The M is still in the air and BOB is already waving.

Save a word in one shot and your multiplier climbs, up to ×8. Take a hit and it falls back to ×1.

Broken words still bite

Pick the wrong letter and you get a string that isn't a word. Shoot the B off BOMB and it's OMB, which is still a bomb. The rule is simple: you broke the word, not the thing.

You're never stuck, though. Keep shooting and you erase it one letter at a time. That always clears it, if you're quick enough. It's slow, it scores next to nothing, and it never raises your multiplier.

The game's test bots put numbers on it. Over 24 runs each, a bot that never reads, and just shoots the middle letter of whichever word looks most dangerous, typically lasted 84 seconds. A bot that reads every word lasted 193 seconds and scored more than twelve times as much.

…that was worse

PLANET has lost its T. The word now reads PLANE, drawn with wings, and red text says PLANE!? above it. A pencil note says: ...that was worse.
Shoot the T off PLANET. The note isn't wrong.

Some letters make it worse. PLANET minus T is a PLANE, and planes dive at you. SPEAR minus P is SEAR, and the floor catches fire.

PLANET has a good letter in it too. So does the PLANE, if you're quick. We're not saying which.

When you run out, the game talks back

At zero lives the board freezes, and a sentence falls on you:

NO MORE LIVES

A pencil note says edit it! Shoot the N. Shoot the O. Now it reads MORE LIVES, you get a life back, and the board is wiped clean.

The board greyed out. NO MORE LIVES in big red letters falls toward the player. A pencil arrow points at it with the note: edit it!
It takes seven seconds to land.
The N and O have been shot off with red strike-throughs. The sentence now reads MORE LIVES in blue, with red hearts bursting out of it.
Two shots later.

Shoot any other letter and the sentence comes down hard with whatever you made, and the run is over. Shoot the V and it reads NO MORE LIES.

Two more sentences come after that one, each a different edit, and they land faster. The fourth one is GAME OVER, and it's armoured.

Why you'll hit R

When the run ends, the game tells you exactly what you missed:

GHOST got you. One shot at the G makes it HOST.

It lists the new transformations you found, counts them out of 56, and points at a word that still hides one. R starts the next run at once. On a phone, tap.

Results screen. Header: NO MORE LIES. Score 48720, new best, page 4, 19 saved, best streak ×8, 90 seconds. GHOST got you. One shot at the G makes it HOST. A list of new transformations, 10 / 56 transformations found, SPEAR hides something. R or click to go again.
This run belongs to one of the game's test bots, not a person, and it's typical in length for that bot (90 seconds, page 4), though its 19 saves are among its best. It never reads, so when NO MORE LIVES fell it shot the V.

Straight answers

Is it really free?
Yes. No price, no ads, no account, nothing to install. It keeps a small save in your browser: your best score and the transformations you've found.
I'm bad at shooters. Is this for me?
It's an action game, so be ready for that: words fall, some dive at you, and every 25 seconds the page turns and things get faster. But you aim sideways only, and shooting every letter always clears a word. The bot that never reads (but aims and dodges like a steady player) made it to page 4 in a typical run. Your first BOMB falls slowly with the answer written next to it.
Do I need a big vocabulary?
Most saves are short words you already know, like COW, CASH and CURE. A few are odder. The fun is spotting the word, not knowing it.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes, with one habit to learn. Every touch fires a shot, and the shot leaves from wherever your caret (the blue mark at the bottom) is, not from your finger. That includes the touch that starts a drag. So slide your finger to aim, lift it, and tap the same spot. Turn the phone sideways for a bigger board.
How long is a run?
A couple of minutes. In the game's own tests, a bot that does nothing lasts about 30 seconds, one that shoots without reading about a minute and a half, and one that reads every word a little over three minutes.
Can my kid play it?
Nobody has tried it with kids yet, so play a run first and judge. A script checks every word the game can drop so that no letter you shoot can leave something rude behind. No chat, no ads, no account. It isn't a spelling course, and this page won't pretend it is.
Is there sound?
Yes, made in your browser as you play, with a typewriter clack on every shot. M mutes it.
Why are there no reviews here?
Because it's new. So far it's been played by its maker's test bots, not by people. You'd be one of the first.

SWORD hides a friendly word. So does OGRE.

Go find them Play full screen

BOB WAS A BOMB is made by Play Moehr Games. Free to play, nothing to buy.