Crosswords Review - DS

8

Gameplay: 9
Graphics: 5
Audio: 5
Innovation: 5

Introduction

Firstly, a word of warning. There are several crossword titles available on the DS, many of which go by similar (if not identical) names. This review is for Crosswords (last two letters appearing handwritten on the cover in an annoying attempt at a pun) and it is published by Nintendo as part of the Touch Generations series.

As far as introductions go, this is a crossword game. It also has find-a-words and anagram games as well.

This will be the easiest review I've ever written.

Gameplay

I love a good crossword: it's something simple to bash out whenever you get bored on the train, or when you see a paper lying around at a friend's place while having a coffee, or when you should be working but aren't...

Starting the game gives you the option of diving right in or dipping your toe in to the tutorial. The tutorial does an excellent job of explaining the buttons and he interface, without bering overly verbose, like I am right now.

The main game begins when you create a profile so you can track your progress. There are four slots, so the whole family (assuming there are less than four of you) can get in on the word game action. After that, you simply select one of the three games to play: Crosswords, Anagrams or Wordsearch.

Each category has its own options available. Crosswords have varying degrees of difficulty, the wordsearches get larger and the anagrams get longer. There's plenty to play around with, but if there's one glaring omission, it is the lack of Sudoku.

The crossword portion is the meat of the game, and it is fantastic (if you're a crossword nerd). There are four difficulty levels, and each difficulty level has at least ten pages of puzzles, and each page has twenty individual puzzles on it (plus a themed bonus level when all puzzles on one page have been completed). For those of you who aren't fond of maths, that's at least eight hundred individual crosswords. The puzzles start out small, with a four by four grid, and get harder, with larger puzzles, longer words and more difficult clues.

There is a help mode available which will highlight incorrect letters in red, but using it will rob you of the chance to earn the + on your ranking. You can also use hints at any time, but they will also eat in to your ranking, and you will lose your precious A ranking. You cannot earn an A+ in easy mode, however, as help is automatically turned on.

Aside from the Crossword stuff, there are the anagram games (rearrange letters to make different words) and a word search, where you search...for words. ...