Developer: Nuevo Retro Games

Publisher: Nintendo

Release Date: May 5, 2008

System: Nintendo DS

ESRB Rating: E

0:00 I became moderately good at crosswords during my college earth science course. Thank god for the college paper for saving my sanity.

0:01 The DS is held sideways, like a book, which seems perfect for a game like this. I don't feel I really need any "training" to know how to work a crossword puzzle, but I'll humor the game... why not.

0:02 Double-tapping a square on the touch screen zooms in and lets me write the appropriate letter. The clues and the larger puzzle remain on the other screen. A pretty good setup.

0:03 The letters show up in red if they're wrong? I nice concession for beginners, but it would never fly for professional crossworders (Yes, they do exist. You should all go see the movie Wordplay).

0:04 As if the red letters weren't enough, you can also get extra hints! Up to 10 per puzzle! At least the game gives you a time penalty for cheating this way.

0:06 The first, sample 4x4 puzzle is really easy to solve. I like how the game auto-scrolls to the next square after I enter a letter. The on-screen arrows make it easy to move around without ever zooming out, too. So far, the software is excellent as recognizing my bad handwriting much better than the similar Brain Age!

0:07 Interesting crossword clue of the moment: "Nintendo.com is a really interesting Web ____" (4 letters).

0:08 On to the real thing. Only easy and medium puzzles are available initially. Let's go for broke with Medium! Whoo!

0:09 Good God! There are 15 pages of "medium" puzzles, with 20 puzzles on each page! Of course, only the first four pages are unlocked to start, and most of them are basic 4x4 grids. Bleh.

0:10 Let's start at the start and take it away with puzzle 1. The game asks if I want to be told when a letter is wrong. NO! I'm the type that does my crosswords with a pen, thanks.

0:13 The first puzzle is giving me lots of trouble. Besides knowing Shrek is an OGRE, I'm pretty stumped.

0:15 Once I figure out physicians can also be called DOCS, it all falls into place. I get an A+ for my 4:08 completion time. That seems pretty lenient. I didn't use any hints, I guess, but a good crossworder would have finished much more quickly.

0:17 I have a much easier time with puzzle No. 2 completing it in 1:02. The hardest clue: "To take long, languorous steps." (LOPE). Should I get an A ++ or something for finishing even faster?

0:18 The first clue on puzzle No. 3 is "They provide milk" (4 letters). And here I was thinking this was a family game!

0:19 Oh... COWS! Never mind.

0:20 Puzzle 3 goes down in 1:14. Stupid clue of the moment: "Half of Meredith?" The answer is MERE. I know... I couldn't believe it either.

0:21 OK, these 4x4 puzzles are getting old already. I jump to puzzle No. 6, which is 7x7. It even has some blacked out squares, like a real crossword. Whoa!

0:23 Stupid clue of the moment: "Pig in a mirror" is GIP? Bleh in a mirror is HELB.

0:24 Puzzle No. 6 complete in 2:32. In general, the clues are minimally clever but still a bit too basic for my tastes.

0:25 On to 9x9 puzzle #11. The text recognition is still really good, except it keeps thinking my Cs are Os, my Os are Ds, and my Ks are Xs. It's my fault for having awful handwriting, really.

0:27 The answer for "Hope it's benign" is CYST. Is this insensitive to people who have non-benign cysts? I'm serious here.

0:28 Awesome word of the moment: NEMESES! The clue was "arch-rivals."

0:29 Apparently you can move around the grid using the control pad. Handy! I mean, my thumb is resting there anyway...

0:31 4:19 for the second 7x7. I must have been off my game on that first puzzle at 0:13. Another A+. Either this grading is calibrated for senile Grandma Tilly or I'm just that awesome.

0:32 I am one-percent done with the medium puzzles. How long does it take to unlock the hard ones, I wonder.

0:33 On to the training for the word search. I can't imagine why a word search needs training Just find the freaking words!

0:35 Highlight the words with the stylus. Well duh! I dive into a sample puzzle with a list of animals on the left screen. I get no credit for finding TACO. But tacos were once animals. Unless they're veggie tacos, I guess...

0:36 I've found GOAK and GOAM but not GOAT. Updates as warranted.

0:37 Goat search update: GBAT has been found. I repeat, GBAT has been found. Keep it here.

0:39 Believe it or not, I've actually developed a word-search strategy of sorts. I start by looking for uncommon letters or letter combos. This is helpful for words like QUAIL and PARROT. Not as helpful for words like CAT.

0:40 The GOAT search is complete. It was hiding among the Goldfish and lizard. Our long national nightmare is over.

0:42 Finding RAT completes the sample puzzle in a ridiculously bad 6:41. That's enough of that tedium for a lifetime. On to the Anagrams tutorial.

0:46 I have to rearrange letter tiles and hit OK when it's a word. I like that I don't have to write the letters longhand, and I like how the tiles stay in place for easy input of rhyming words/plurals.

0:48 Just noticed that this sample puzzle game won't let me put in 5-letter words like PEARL, or the six-letter word REPLAY. LAME!

0:50 YAR is a word? I was totally guessing right there.

0:51 After five minutes and 61percent of all the words, I give up on the training puzzle. I missed stuff like LYRE, APER, YEP and YELP. Oh, well.

0:52 On to a real anagram puzzle. My goal is to get them all before the hour is up. CAN I POSSIBLY OVERCOME THE ODDS?

0:54 The 6 letter is FACETS. I've got 37 percent at 1:05.

0:55 FETA is a word, but FETAS? I'm as shocked as you are.

0:57 Up to 86 percent at 3 minutes. It's gonna be close.

0:58 FETAS is a word but SCAT isn't? What kind of world is this?

0:59 The interface makes it easy to just guess words desperately. Words like TAFE, FECAS, SCEFA and FSTCAE.

1:00 MY self-imposed time limit is up. I missed FEST. EAST, SAC and SECT. Heh. Sac.

Would I play this game for more than an hour? Yes.


Why? A great interface in a tiny package that's much more convenient than a bulky book and pen. Seems like a great mental time waster.

This review is based on a retail copy of the game rented from GameFly.

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