I love this sort of game, and the Prelude was really well done. I like the addition of more different effects bubbles and the continuation of the storyline through the stages is neat in Act 1. The omission of the boiler is a misstep. It makes me sad to incinerate the letters I don't want anymore. The pay-for-play though, is just silly. I would honestly consider it for, say, an ipod game, but Kong? meh. I'll continue to play it, because I love anagram-type games and there are relatively few on kong, but I'm disappointed in the direction this series is going.
I'm so glad an anagram-type game has badges, yay!
If you're having trouble getting the medium, hold on to your brass (yellow) letters until there are a bunch of spiders on the board, then let 'er rip (you can press 'shift' while you type to not use letters on the board if you'd like). The brass ones do aoe damage and score based on the damage done to all the mobs, not just straight letter damage.