Puzzle Challenges: Crosswords and More (PS2, PSP)

Reviewed by Kit

A crossword puzzle game? Is this serious? Yes, yes it is, and the game is quite entertaining. How entertaining? Let's find out.

Story: No plot, it's a puzzle game. 1/5

Audio: Music plays in the background while you solve the various puzzles, but it's not particularly great. Very repetitive. 1/5

Graphics: As a puzzle game, graphics are not really important. Some of the puzzles could benefit for being slightly larger, but overall they're suitable. Nothing fancy besides your choice of backgrounds. 2/5

Gameplay: You have a variety of puzzle types to make solve. Crosswords, word searches, cryptics, and so forth. There are a set number of each type of puzzles, usually about 100. Puzzles are manipulated by using the shoulder buttons and both of the thumbsticks. It takes a few tries to get everything flowing smoothly. Depending on how quickly you solve puzzles will affect how many points you get. As you get more points you can unlock more backgrounds and more background music. The game is easy to control, and the puzzles are entertaining, if you like this sort of thing. 4/5

Replay: The game is fun to play multiple times, at least until you've solved all the puzzles. Then you can start all over if you want, or lend it to another person. 3/5

Overall: This game is exactly as advertised, a bunch of puzzles. Somehow though, it is also a great party game. Get a group of friends together and see how many people can shout out what the answer is at once. However, if you would rather a game for travelling, pick up the PSP copy. If you want to enjoy group puzzle-solving, grab the PS2 version. Either way, it's a great choice if you like word puzzles. 4/5