We hope that many of you flocked to stores this week to get Barnyard Blast. If so, or if you're a fan of crosswords, you might be happy to know that the same developer (Sanuk Games) is coming out with Crossword Challenge.Or, you might be thinking, "Another crossword game?" Aside from the New York Times title, Nintendo is coming out with one in May. Then there are iterations using The Sun's crosswords and a USA Today's. So, in other words, five games. If you speak Japanese, there's also Compile Heart's release.
We don't mind an oversaturated crossword market, though. New York Times puzzles can be too hard, Nintendo ones might be too easy, The Sun's will be too trashy, and USA Today's crosswords are always too similar. In our opinion, there's definitely a place for this Sanuk Games project.
Of course, whether there's room in the market is another question. The New York Times rendition came out long ago, but surely sales for the other four will eat into each other, with (we think) Nintendo's being the most successful. Whether or not the publishers do well, though, there's no doubt that with competition, the consumer always wins.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-16-2008 @ 8:02PM
BlackDS said...
Today only, the New York Times Crossword Puzzle is $9.99 at Amazon.com.
However, be warned, the New York Times Crossword Puzzle is ridiculously hard. Just pick up today's New York Time (or any other day), and see for yourself.
But for all you bargain hunters, "don't ever say I didn't do nothing for you" (stole the quote for Mulder in the X-files).
Peace.
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2-18-2008 @ 12:56PM
foosnark said...
Thanks for the heads up on that one. :)
2-16-2008 @ 8:41PM
RachelKat said...
I love having the Times crosswords. The thing to remember is that the week gets progressively harder, with Monday the easiest (M-W I'm usually done in about 15 minutes). Thursday is where things begin to get hairy, and Saturday's is the hardest of the 15x15 puzzles. Sunday is the Magazine puzzle and they're almost always full of tricks and puns.
Sunday puzzles sometimes have gags that make it a little hard to put into a DS game. Instead of being able to draw a house or a numeral 2 as you can in the newspaper, you can be stuck just having to write an initial 'H' or 'T'; that makes the grid look even odder.
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2-17-2008 @ 8:32AM
BlackDS said...
I'm having problems posting comments to the Cobalt DS Lite giveaway. :(
Peace.
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2-26-2008 @ 1:34AM
Yan Marchal said...
Hi there! Thanks for posting about us.
As a matter of fact, we (Sanuk Games) developed both the Sun's and USA Today's crossword games. Our "Crossword Challenge" game engine was used in both projects. We have no plan to release a non-branded crossword game in addition to these.
We also did a French language crossword game called "Mots Croisés", whose (non final) packaging art is displayed in your article.
Yan
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