Puzzle Challenge: Crosswords & More! offers 1001 word and number based puzzles in a simple & functional budget package.
This ultra-budget package contains quite a variety of puzzles at various difficulty levels, measured on a scale of 1 to 10 in the game. There are 4 types of crossword puzzle: "Easy", "Challenger", "Cryptic", and "Diamond". The "Diamond" puzzles can be solved in a few minutes but depending on your skill level, the "Cryptic" puzzles can last an hour or two. There are 244 crosswords in total. If you happen to get stuck, you can reveal a letter on the grid with the push of a button. You will be penalized 5 minutes towards your total solution time every time you use this feature.
There's actually more "& More!" in this game than the crosswords. 109 "Code Breakers" will have you matching numbers and letters to make words appear on the grid. Micro, mini and regular sized "Word Search" puzzles are probably the easiest of the bunch, but there are 299 of them to work through. The 141 "Kriss Kross" puzzles challenge you to simply fit a list of words on the grid. "Number Jigs" total 162 and have you fitting listed numbers onto the grid instead. Finally, there are 46 "Back Words" puzzles that are like a reverse crossword, having you find the black squares.
Besides the grid, and the list you are working with in any given puzzle, there isn't much to look at in this title. There are some bland background wallpapers that you unlock by solving puzzles, but you probably won't even notice them. The grids and lists are all clean and easy to read though, which is what really counts in a title like this. It's basic yet functional, so I have to give it a passing grade.
The soundtrack is equally bland. It does have some nice airy trance like tunes, which fit the puzzle genre perfectly. The problem is that the audio tracks are very short and just seem to fade out after 2 minutes or so. There's only 4 songs unlocked at the beginning of the game, so you'll hear the same thing alot. Even after unlocking more tracks, they seem to get old quickly. Truth be told, I usually just turn on the radio, or an MP3 play list instead of listening to the game.
The controls are handled surprisingly well. Navigation is performed well by an intuitive control scheme that uses the shoulder buttons and analog sticks to navigate the various grids, menus and virtual keyboards. It takes some getting used to and some games have different control schemes, effectively forcing you to relearn some subtlties a few times. My only complaint with the controls is that there is no delete or backspace button assigned to the controller itself.
For the price of 2 or 3 traditional puzzle books, Puzzle Challenge: Crosswords & More! lets you play 1001 traditional pencil and paper puzzles on your couch, and while the replay value is thin, there are enough activities to keep you busy for some time. Game releases like this prove that the casual game market is here to stay, and that a small price can hide some quality fun, or maybe even some quality time with your mom.
- Brian J. Papineau