CrossworDS Game Review
I've been a fan of word games since I was a kid. I remember going to my Nan's and hiding away in her back room with her Take a Break mag and a pencil so that I could do the puzzles and then rub the answers out so I wouldn't spoil it for her. So as you can imagine, when I saw CrossworDS in the GAME pending release list, I was pretty quick to put it on pre-order.
I wish I hadn't bothered. The game is crap. The box itself advertises "over 2700" puzzles, and yet the inner booklet keeps referring to only 555. Turns out that there is only 555 puzzles, but offered in 5 languages which is what makes the box-total. I don't know about you, but I've not got the time to learn a new language just so that I can do the puzzles all over again.
This wouldn't be so bad — over 500 crosswords is still enough to keep me busy — but the puzzles are all identical. There are a 3 difficulty levels, which in actual fact only affect the size of the puzzle 'board', but otherwise seem to have nothing to distinguish them from one another. The same clues are simply placed in a different order/position for each puzzle. The clues themselves are often misspelled ("1983 Nobel price Peace" — shouldn't that be prize?) and focus on 3 distinct groups of question of which I don't know the answer. Still, if you know the names of all of the Nobel prize winners, the names of all the rivers in Europe, and an extensive knowledge of celebrities, you'd do fine.
As if dodgy clues and box-based lies weren't enough, the game itself doesn't actually work! I started selecting Medium difficulty puzzles at random, only to end up on Easy boards. Every time I selected screen-based keyboard input instead of handwriting it forgot my preference, and if you exit a puzzle and go back in it loses your words, despite being advertised as saving them (if you continue the same puzzle).
I think I'll be trading this one in for something else.
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On Wed 4th Jun 2008 @ 17:35, Stephanie said:
sounds like this game gets epic failz.
On Wed 4th Jun 2008 @ 18:08, Robbie said:
Ewww. Since it's basically free to print out quality word games online, I wouldn't have bought this to begin with, But that's a sucky experience. Sorry that happened. At least you can trade it in for a few pounds toward a better game.
On Wed 4th Jun 2008 @ 18:13, Mumblies said:
What a swizz! Maybe you should write to the people that made the game and tell them what a con it is and ask for your money back?
On Wed 4th Jun 2008 @ 19:21, Han said:
nothings is as bad as the 45 games in one thats apparently a top seller - OMG is it bad!! Ninty need to bring back their seal of approval and stop all this third party tat getting onto their consoles!
On Wed 4th Jun 2008 @ 19:48, Julie said:
I got the game and know what you mean. They also recycle the same questions over and over and over and over again. If you do the one in French, they often ask for words in English, like "anglais pour chat" (English for cat).
Happily for me, I know two sites that offer good crossword puzzles for free in French. But I doubt you would want to do crosswords in French, let alone on one of the sites in particular, where the puzzles are rather hard.
On Wed 4th Jun 2008 @ 20:02, Vera said:
Well you never know... maybe in 1983 they decided to put the Nobel prize up for auction *hehe*
That definitely seems like a bad investment. Can you really just exchange it for something else like that? I didn't know that was possible.
On Wed 4th Jun 2008 @ 20:43, Yesenia said:
Aww, that really sucks! I absolutely love crossword puzzles, and I thought this game might be worth buying. But with what you've said, I'm starting to have doubts.
Guess I'll just stick to playing crossword puzzles online =D
On Wed 4th Jun 2008 @ 22:15, Robbie said:
^Vera--Usually, at least in the US, you take it in and exchange it for a certain amount of credit towards another game. usually it ranges from 2 to 10 dollars, depending on how good or popular the game is. Which, in this case, means it's not going to be worth very much.
On Wed 4th Jun 2008 @ 22:52, Chelsea said:
That's really crap. I got a crossword and sudoku puzzle game on my iPod and sucked just as much as the DS game. It didn't let you start a new puzzle until you finished the first default one, which also had spelling mistakes. The sudoku made you do the whole thing without clues then told you you made a mistake. That's it! No guide, you have to check it over for it manually. What rip-offs.
On Thu 5th Jun 2008 @ 02:35, Aimée said:
That's frustrating and annoying.
Ever played Crickler? (www.crickler.com) It's a fun, well-done game.
On Thu 5th Jun 2008 @ 03:57, Lydia said:
I've never liked doing crosswords--not because of the idea itself but moreso because I suck at games like that. Logic doesn't come very easily for me.
On Thu 5th Jun 2008 @ 16:31, Hayley said:
What a scam!
Anything to make money, I have a game similar to that, it's Cooking Mama, don't get me wrong, I love the game but there's so many mistakes on it and they lie about the amount of recipes available, claiming there is over 500 NEW recipies, where are the old ones? This is Cooking Mama 1 were talking about, anyway back to the point, write to the company that produced the game and tell them you expect a full refund and a game that actually works and doesn't have misspelled words. x
On Fri 6th Jun 2008 @ 09:30, Sonya said:
Why not get one of those *hem* Slot 1 backup devices? They can take micro SD cards up to about 8 GB, if you want to email me or anything I can tell you what I have. I have experienced so many crap games now, but at least I was able to find out they were crap... it's just a much more sound investment. And if the games are good, you can then delete the ROMs and buy the game, knowing it's a good investment.
GAME here in Oz is brutally overpriced, but EB has seven-day returns (longer at Christmas) for cash, credit, EFTPOS, etc. It's great.
On Tue 17th Jun 2008 @ 11:00, Beth said:
Well this is certainly a huge let down for me! I was actually considering on buying it. I prefer word games and games of the sort, over action games. I LOVE crossword puzzles, and sudoku, word scramble games..anything to stimulate my mind.
Guess I'll just stick to my Brain Age and Brain Age 2 games..they both have tons of sudoku puzzles, and can be quite entertaining. Especially Brain Age 2. When you get bored with the training, you can play Virus Buster, which is a lot like Dr. Mario, from the early Nintendo version.
Thanks a lot for this review!
On Sat 30th Aug 2008 @ 04:22, Sarah said:
Hm, I haven't had the same problems you have, with it not remembering my words that is. I think my favorite part of the game is actually the word searches instead of the crosswords, though I've enjoyed those, too. Their questions haven't been great, but it's a nice I've-gotta-take-a-sit-down-in-the-bathroom game.