The Gruzzles are lazy creatures that don't know how to read. That would have been half the trouble if they didn't decide that if they can't read, no one else should be able to. They stole all the letters from all the books, and the world was left without words. Benny the Bookworm, the keeper of books, sends a valiant little adventurer to bring the words back, and restore the world to its normal self.

Word Rescue is an educational side-scrolling action game that attempts to teach children to recognize written words. The player's goal is to have the protagonist "bump" into question marks to reveal written words. Once a word has been revealed, the hero must find a picture that corresponds to it. Matching a word with a wrong picture summons a Gruzzle, who must be dispatched of.