Nintendo Presents Crossword Collection (Nintendo DS) Review

By Adam Riley 05.01.2010

Review for Nintendo Presents Crossword Collection on Nintendo DS

Genius Sonority was enlisted to bring UK DS owners a whole host of classic novels to read just after Christmas 2008, with 100 Classic Book Collection, but what did Nintendo have up its sleeve for the close of 2009? Well, to the untrained eye it may seem like a brand new title called Nintendo Presents: Crossword Collection. However, a closer look will indeed reveal it is merely the localised version of CrossworDS from developer Nuevo Retro Games, which launched in the US back in May 2008. Of course, though, it would be extremely unfair to criticise a game right from the off simply because of it taking so long to released here.

US-based development team Nuevo Retro Games currently only lists CrossworDS in the games section of its website, despite being described as a licensed DS and Wii outfit that states a desire to work on original creations, as well as porting projects and designing games around people's IP and licenses. The team's first effort for Nintendo has worked out well for it, though, with the final product being a solid puzzle effort to attract the casual gaming base that are still buying the DS system in their droves. Being a collection of crosswords (with a few extras thrown in for value purposes), clearly not much is expected on the audio and visual front, since all that is really required is a clear, user-friendly interface and simple input method. As expected from a Nintendo release, the hand-writing recognition is almost faultless (writing a 'K' can be awkward, but it clearly depends how adept you are with a stylus and your personal writing style) and the entire set-up has an extra lick of polish.

There are three game options to choose from: Crossword, Wordsearch, and Anagram. The main port of call here is obviously the name of the game itself, the Crossword Collection. Players can choose from three difficulty settings, with a fourth one locked away as incentive to keep making progress, and there is a certain amount of Hint Points available on each crossword in case you get stumped on some questions. There is also the ability to turn on a mode where writing the wrong letter in a box highlights said character it in red and plays an audio cue to indicate a mistake has been made. Whilst it does not give you the right answer, at least it saves some hassle later down the line. Purists will obviously prefer to switch this feature off, no doubt. As for navigation around the various grids, hitting the 'Zoom' button does what it says on the tin, making it simpler to write in a box, whilst pressing it again zooms back out (an alternative is to double-tap on the grid to zoom in). Hand-writing a word into the designated box, one character at a time, seems even easier than in Brain Training, but there is always the chance to delete any erroneous entries by using the eraser icon should it be required. It is also easy to switch from Across and Down clues by using the D-pad or self-named on-screen buttons. With over 1,000 crosswords included, with everything done against the clock, completists and high score chasers will be in their element.

Screenshot for Nintendo Presents Crossword Collection on Nintendo DS

Should players grow weary of constantly attempting to complete the crossword conundrums on offer, there are three types of Wordsearches to tackle, coming in Small and Large form, with a hidden mode that unlocks after sufficient progress has been made on the first two modes. There are different categories of words to find, starting with Animals and British Geography on the small ones, whilst Cities and Countries are on the large, but with plenty more opening up to encourage repeated play. Sadly the touch-screen is not superbly accurate in this instance, and it can be quite awkward trying to highlight specific letters to start off a word when using the stylus on the touch-screen, leading to errors that would otherwise not be encountered if using a wordsearch book and a pen or pencil. Perhaps the opportunity to cancel an initial selection would have been a useful means of overcoming such a point of frustration, but sadly it was not included. The better of the two extras definitely has to be the Anagrams mode, where players can choose to unscramble Short, Medium, or Long words. The aim is to take the bunch of random letters on-screen and create a set number of words from them, with each correctly organised word being uncovered and ticked off on the tally chart on the left-hand screen (the DS is held on its side like a book in every mode, just in Brain Training). There are hundreds of anagrams overall, which will certainly prove to be hours of fun for those that enjoy the likes of Scrabble.

For its GBP19.99 price-tag this is certainly not a bad package at all. However, there are other puzzle collections that, whilst maybe not quite as user-friendly or aesthetically pleasing, do have more crammed into them. Perhaps if Nintendo had pushed the boat out a bit more in terms of content, even adding online features or local multiplayer it would have made this a must-buy title. Crossword Collection could definitely have benefitted from a multiplayer element, seeing who can complete puzzles quickest, or even having a local wireless co-operative solving option where players work together to crack crosswords or find words. Alternatively online features such as extra puzzles being made available for download could have been introduced. Considering this is pretty much the same game that US gamers received in May 2008 and Australians got in June 2008, the fact that this has become a UK-exclusive release at the very end of 2009 is quite surprising, especially as there have been no extras added to warrant the massive delay. At least 100 Classic Book Collection, the English version of what many thought would be a Japanese-only release, had extra books to download and had not been available in English for a year and a half before hitting these shores! However, Nintendo Presents Crossword Collection is still a solid effort that does not lose marks for arriving so late. Instead it does so for missing several opportunities to make this an essential purchase.

Screenshot for Nintendo Presents Crossword Collection on Nintendo DS

Cubed3 Rating

7/10
Rated 7 out of 10

Very Good - Bronze Award

Rated 7 out of 10

Nintendo Presents Crossword Collection is a fine product that will appeal to puzzle fans all over, throwing enough crosswords, wordsearches and anagrams at players to keep even the brainiest of DS owner occupied for quite some time. Sadly there are a few elements missing that prevent this from becoming a must-buy title.

Also known as

CrossworDS

Developer

Nuevo Retro

Publisher

Nintendo

Genre

Puzzle

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  7/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  7/10 (1 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date None   Australian release date Out now   

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