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A must-have for crossword fans

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 31 / 33
Date: June 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

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.

Quite simply a perfect game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 19
Date: June 14, 2007
Author: Amazon User

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.

Enjoyable and a must own for crossword fans

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 12 / 16
Date: June 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The reknowned New York Times is known for it's challenging crossword puzzles, hence Majesco's attempt at bringing the same kind of experience to the dual screens of the DS. Surprisingly, it works very well, with nothing of the challenge being lost in translation from paper to the digital world. New York Times Crosswords features over a thousand crossword puzzles to come straight from the New York Times, and thankfully, Majesco has made a near flawless video game adaptation. Taking advantage of the DS' touch screen and stylus, New York Times Crosswords lets you use either a keyboard to type the letters or the stylus to draw, and surprisingly, the recognition of the touch screen is spot on. Being able to save a puzzle in progress, as well as the game saving your stats for the puzzles you've completed, is a great big plus as well. The only real downside for New York Times Crosswords is the fact that if you don't like crossword puzzles in real life, or keep up with current events, you won't get the maximum kind of enjoyment out of this as one can. Not to mention that once you get through the thousand puzzles contained here, there's no way to download any new puzzles (yet) and there's no Wi-Fi capability either. All that aside, New York Times Crosswords for the DS works surprisingly well, and for DS owners that consider themselves crossword puzzle buffs, this game is definitely worth picking up.

This game is a must have for any DS owner's library!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: June 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

What a perfect translation of the gold standard of Crossword Puzzles.
The New York Times Crossword puzzles are by far the best in the world and this game has over a thousand of them!
I've already taken it on a flight to Japan and it is a wonderful time killer.

The NY Times Crosswords are not easy, but if you are up to a challenge this game is just terrific.

It's a very stylized looking game and the use of the stylus for handwriting works perfectly.
There is also a keyboard for those with handwriting issues that would also come in handy.

I am recommending this game to all my friends and colleagues.

GREAT GAME!

Amazing!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 13
Date: May 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is really incredible. Nearly three years worth of daily NYT puzzles for $30! The use of the stylus is very technologically advanced (you hand-write in all the letters). The only drawback is at times you will find yourself forced to adjust your handwriting slightly to something more uniform and normal. Before I got the hang of things, my capital H's all came out as A's. Not a big deal, but a little frustrating at first.

Really, this is a remarkable game for crossword fans. And these are pretty hard puzzles, too!

Great title for the older DS Lite crowd

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: May 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I was really surprised how well this title is put together. It has great presentation, excellent writing recognition, multiple profiles, over 1000 puzzles, and great music. I would recommend this title for any DS Lite owner who is a crosswords lover or is simply interested in getting familiar with them.

Excellent idea and execution

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: July 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The DS touch screen is put to great use in NYTIMES Crossword Puzzles, there aren't any really bad points to this game, other than the timing mode can be unforgiving and sometimes you can accidentaly hit the hint button because of its placement other than that though this game delivers on its promise, as others have said the handwriting recognition software adapts to your writing and improves as you play. Terrific skill level adaptability and the need to never erase or scratch out a pen mark make this a must own, I just wish I was faster at these puzzles!

Mindbending puzzles, great value

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: August 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you are at all a fan of crossword puzzles, this is definitely worth getting.

The handwriting recognition is much better than brain age's; there are certain letters in my handwriting that aren't recognized in capital letters (B for instance) but I can switch to lower case and have it be picked up that way. I noticed it also picks up some cursive letters as well.

You don't actually write in the boxes though; you select the box and then there's only a small box in the lower right corner that picks up your handwriting. Fortunately it's smart enough to know to skip over letters you've already filled in, so it's not really a problem. You can also use the d-pad to position the cursor where in the word you want to edit, which allows you to be a little more efficient.

My one complaint about the writing system is that you cannot tweak the setting for how long you need to stop writing before it inputs that letter and allows you to write the next letter. It's almost perfect the way it is, but I would shave off a couple fractions of a second; probably at least once a puzzle I'll accidentally input two letters into the same box because I jumped the gun a little bit.

There's also a keyboard you can use if you don't want to deal with the writing (but . that'd be kind of dumb, as it obscures a lot more of the screen than the little black handwriting box would)..

There are three zoom levels for the puzzles; I prefer to zoom all the way out to get the biggest picture (you can see a whole non-Sunday puzzle on the screen this way); the only drawback is that you can't see the numbers in this mode, but it's easy enough to zoom back in when there's a clue referencing another number.

As far as navigating the clues, you can either tap any you want, and double tap to switch from vertical to horizontal or vice versa, or you can cycle through the clues with the L and R buttons. Very good feature.

I should mention that the top screen only shows the currently selected clue and the boxes for the answer; they might have used this real estate to a slightly better use, but I can't really think how.

OK, so there are three modes: Puzzle week, which steps you through Monday through Sunday in order to unlock bonus puzzles; Quick Puzzle, which gives you a random puzzle at the difficulty you specify in the preferences; and challenge mode, where you select a puzzle from a calendar.

In all of these modes, by default, the clock is on and counting down. You get graded on your speed of completion; for instance anything under around 18 minutes on a Monday puzzle is considered an A+. If you get stuck and use a hint (which fills in the currently selected box) your score is drastically penalized; use more than one and you're all but guaranteed a poor score.
So far I haven't really noticed any real point to the scores other than to track your progress; it's not like the game requires a C for the puzzle to count as finished.

I should mention too that the music is innocuous but short so it will loop a lot; turn it off and listen to something else. The aesthetics are nice; each day of the week has a different color scheme and slightly different icons to the right of the screen (if your HUD is turned on) that allow you to do things like get a hint, delete a character, etc. without using the buttons. For instance, on Monday puzzles there's a coffee house type theme.

Finally, when you finish a puzzle, if you have any mistakes they are circled in yellow and you have a chance to rectify them. This doesn't count against you at all (e.g. you can still get an A+ even if your original submission had mistakes, as long as you fix them within the time limit).

Definitely worth the money; with over 1000 puzzles this is going to keep me occupied for a long time.

I should mention that I had an interesting family experience with this. I had my dad play it and he got the hang of it fairly quickly (and he's certainly not the most technically literate guy). My older brother joined in to help solve the puzzle. It's interesting because my dad, an avid crossword puzzle fan, prefers using pencil and paper while my brother, who had never previously expressed an interest in crossword puzzles, seemed drawn to the game simply because of the fact that it was on a piece of electronics.

Ultimately, if you or your loved one owns a Nintendo DS and likes crossword puzzles, you cannot go wrong with this game.

Paper is so 1990s

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: August 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The NY Times crosswords are the standard others are compared to. Personally, I have trouble with them later in the week and often can't finish. So where does that leave crossword puzzle players who need a bit of assistance or those without a subscription to the newspaper? Well this game, which is a vast improvement on the paper. If they keep releasing these I'll never need to go back.
The tiny cartridge contains three years of NY Times Crosswords puzzles as well as some bonus brain busters. In the game itself you can use the stylus to write letters or use the optional keyboard if you draw letters messily.
So why is this the definitive collection that will make you throw out the paper ones?

1: Multiplay. Play with up to four people with a single cartridge. Finally a group can do a crossword without someone hanging over your shoulder.
2: Hints. As I mentioned before I'm not so good with the hard ones. So you can pay a time penalty and get a letter (or perhaps in my case several letters) to help.
3: Volume. This contains three years plus, which is something like 1200 crosswords. Also you have probably recycled those papers long ago.
4: Really drowsy music. OK so maybe that is something that the paper version has an edge. Unless you like crossword mood music.

Honestly if you heard the name of this game you should know exactly what you're getting into. The functionality of the DS adds a number of great features. If you own a DS and like crosswords then this is a seven letter word meaning flawless or an exact fit.

great, portable crosswords

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: November 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I'm really enjoying this game for my DS. The puzzles are challenging, but I'm starting with the Mondays and working up. I can do Mon - Wed pretty well now, and can get through most of Thusday too. I love the clever word-play clues and the puzzles are just well-designed in general. The zoom feature is great - there are three zoom levels that are easy to use. It's also easy to hop around from one part of the puzzle to another. I love the handwriting recognizer (except for lowercase i) and that my puzzle is filled in so neatly (unlike my paper ones!)

A few changes I'd like to see:
1. There are extra puzzles of some kind (brain busters) that you can unlock after you finish a week of puzzles. I wish it were a certain number instead because I think it will be a while before I manage a Sunday.
2. I wish I could save more puzzle mid-way through. I find that some clues will come to me if I put them down and come back to them.
3. I would love an option that alerted you if you put in a wrong letter or perhaps a "check my input so far" option. I know you can't do those things with a traditional paper crossword, but some electronic sudoku versions have options like these. The closest thing is that when you finish the puzzle, the incorrect answers are circled, but you have to fill in every square to get there first. There is a hint button that will fill in one square for you, but you are assessed a penalty.

The only other thing I'll add is that I work as a substitute teacher and often do crosswords while the students do their work. However, when I have my DS, the kids think I'm playing video games and then want to use their games, which they're not allowed. So, I have to still carry around the paper kind. Oh well.

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