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The New York Times Crosswords makes a perfect pairing: The intellectual challenge of the New York Times crossword puzzles & the stylus control of the Nintendo DS. Write your answers into each puzzle with the stylus or use a Touch Screen keyboard to enter letters. Various modes of play will challenge even the most savvy wordplay enthusiasts.
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It doesn't get much better than this. Not only do you get over 1000 New York Times crosswords, you also get a great interface and a variety of play modes.
For those who haven't tried Times crosswords before, there's a reason they're renowned-- fresh vocabulary and interesting clues. And don't be intimidated by their reputation. The difficulty varies depending on the day of the week and there are plenty of easier Monday and Tuesday puzzles for beginners as they work up to the later days of the week.
Besides a massive set of some of the best crosswords available, you get a great user interface too. The puzzles can be panned and zoomed, allowing you to fit either the entire grid or a small portion of it on the bottom screen. On the top screen, in large print, is the current clue and corresponding letter boxes. There are a number of ways to navigate around the puzzle using touch or button controls, making it easy to hop around. And best of all there's a small box on the touch screen for handwriting recognition (a pop-up keyboard is available too), allowing you to write in your answers with the stylus. The hand-writing recognition could be a little bit quicker, but other than that it functions beautifully.
There are plenty of play options too. You can pick out a crossword from any date among the several year span of puzzles in the game (roughly March 2004 to November 2006), you can play a Monday to Sunday week of randomly selected puzzles, and there are several wireless (not WFC internet) multiplayer options to play head-to-head or cooperatively with friends.
All in all this is a brilliantly executed and deep package of some of the best crossword puzzles on Earth. I consider it a must-have for any crossword fan.
The design of this game is perfect. It has the best handwriting recognition I have ever used. It is rare that I do not have a single recommendation on how to improve a game, but this is one such instance. I never thought doing a crossword electronically could be so intuitive. Even if you have only a passing interest in crosswords, this game is a must buy.
I began playing crossword puzzles when I was interested in a girl at work. Mind you, I didn't play them because I liked them, but rather because she did. Well, as things of this nature go, she walked off with another guy while I was left standing with the puzzles.
Hooray???
It wasn't a total loss as I began to appreciate the complexities and the knowledge one has to possess to complete these crosswords.
In comes The New York Times Crosswords for the DS. This is a great representation of a traditional game that we all know and love. While to some this might seem like overkill of a pretty generic game, the DS handles this in a very bare bones manner--and this is just fine and welcomed in my opinion.
Lets face it, this is a crossword puzzle in digital form. We don't need flashy graphics. While this isn't a powerhouse game, the interface is very classy and easy to navigate; you wont confuse anyone with the menus or in-game controls, which is good because the target audience is probably in the older scale.
As far as controlling the game itself, it is as easy as jotting down a letter on the touch-pad. You can also use a virtual keyboard to fill in your answers, but overall, the easiest way is the touch-pad.
The game isn't for everyone and it isn't totally exciting, but what it lacks in action you gain in knowledge. What I like about crosswords, especially the tougher ones, is the drive to finishing them and in the process learning a few things here and there.
And while the in-game navigation and control are great, I wish they had place more emphasis on the save system. While you can save three different puzzles, you can't save three different ones in any one of the modes of play. While you might stick to one puzzle at a time, for those who like to multitask, this is a bit limiting. It doesn't break the game, but it just ruffles the feathers around an otherwise solid game.
If you are a crossword puzzle fan, this is a great title to stick in your DS.Read more ›
I love doing crosswords so of course for my new DS Lite I got The New York Times Crosswords, the end all be all in the puzzle world. I can normally do a monday puzzle in fifteen minutes but it took nearly an hour with this game. And it didn't seem any harder except that there is no list of clues to scan as in the printed format of puzzles. You get one clue at a time in the upper screen. I also found it very frustrating when a puzzle clue referred to other answers in the puzzle it being nearly impossible to view the entire puzzle with the numbers showing. I would seriously consider how you do puzzles before you buy this game. Do you scan the clues until one jumps out or do you methodically go through in numerical order? I think this game could have used a little bit more input by people who do daily crosswords then they might have had a list of clues. Also I would have preferred a vertical orientation of the ds lite it seem it would be easier to hold and write. Get a subscription to the times or any other daily paper that carries their puzzles or do The Onion's online. This just isn't the easiest way to enjoy a good puzzle. Do not buy this game if you think fifteen minutes to do a monday is a long time...you know who you are. I still love you Will Shortz.
