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Crossword Collection DS

Format:
DS

Genre:
Improvement

Buy/Support:
Support Jan, click to buy via us...

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Other GamePeople columnists have reviewed this from their perspective - huh?:
Domestic Gamer (DS)

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Similar

Games about the same difficulty:

• Brain Training
• The Times Crossword Challenge

Easier

Games for newer and young gamers:

• My Secret Diary
• More Touchmaster

Harder

Games with more bite for experts:

• Challenge Me: Brain Puzzles
• Mind Your Language: French

Crossword Collection for Nintendo DS offers over 1000 puzzles in one game to help ease those long journeys and commutes to work. With three difficulty settings offering challenges unique to your skill level, Crossword Challenge also contains anagram and word search brain-teasers to ensure your puzzle experience has a sense of variety. Whether this is your first puzzle game or you’re looking for a fresh challenge, Crossword Challenge for the DS is fun for everyone.

Containing over a thousand puzzles, Crossword challenge for Nintendo DS is packed full of content to get you by whenever you're on a commute or waiting in the Doctor's office. There's something so wonderful about having a small handheld system like the DS to help pass the time whenever you need it to. Just like Brain Training and Professor Layton, Crossword Challenge works best in small bursts and the variety and multitude of Crosswords or puzzles available is very impressive.

With its simple and straightforward interface that lets you get into the crosswords with a minimum of fuss, there's no need for any tutorials. The immediate strength to this title is how similar it feels to opening your favourite newspaper and doing the crossword - except you have several hundred at your beck and call.

The difficulty settings allow for a good range of different skill levels. Easy is very straightforward and suitable for younger players or those (like me) who get stumped easily at such challenges. Medium contains a good mix of easy puzzles and much harder ones that require some lateral thinking or pondering. Hard, on the other hand, contains crosswords as difficult as you’re likely to see in the most challenging of broadsheet newspapers.

One strange omission is the lack of any cryptic crosswords. These have quite a following and although I detest them myself they would have made this game complete and given the really intelligent players an extra level of difficulty to enjoy.

For those of us lacking in the little grey cell department the game contains a few options to help you out. A 'cheat' setting, that when activated, tells you when you’ve entered an incorrect letter or enables you to purchase a set amount of clues for each puzzle. It's a good system that encourages you to complete more crosswords and if used correctly can really help to improve your word power.

Crosswords aren't the only type of puzzle in the game and its pleasing to see the addition of Word search and Anagram brain-teasers. These are very addictive and provide a good break from the crosswords if you get bored with the main game. It's a little bit like finding one of those airport puzzle books in with your newspaper and it serves to extend the life of the game even more.

The important aspect that this game gets right is how playable the whole experience is. It might not look tremendously interesting but when you're talking about a crossword game then it matters very little how flashy the graphics are. I found Crossword Challenge for Nintendo DS incredibly easy to use and offering a good variety of puzzles and difficulty levels to keep the experience fresh. If you're after a game that will make those commutes to work or long journey's fly past with ease then look no further than Crossword Challenge for the DS.

Written by Jan Brookes

You can support Jan by buying Crossword Collection



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Jan Brookes writes the Frugal Gamer column.

"Welcome to my buyer's guide video game reviews. As well as giving you the low down on the best Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS lite and PSP game I also offer well research alternatives that are Similar, Easier and Harder than the one we are reviewing."

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