Kevin C. Wong

Apple Arcade - Tiny Crossword+ (2021) [/]

I was in the mood for a crossword puzzles game and Apple Arcade has Tiny Crossword+. As the name implies these are small crosswords, the smallest being about 10 clues and the largest less than 60. You traverse across countries and in each country the crosswords are a bit themed to that country though I didn't really notice. Most of the clues are fairly easy and there are a lot of repetitions (i.e. you'll see the same clues with the same answers). Some clues are pop culture or similar which sometimes I had a hard time with (e.g. clues about current celebrities or songs).

If you're just powering through the crossword it's easy to enter letters and it will automatically skip letters already in the crossword and go to the next clue. But even on my iPad it's a bit more cramped than I'd like because the keyboard takes up a lot of space. You can always the whole crossword but frequently not all the clues and have to scroll the clue section.

As I mentioned the puzzles are easy to moderate. What makes it easier is that the first clue you solve unlocks a few letters and there will be more letter unlocking after several clues so three or four for the largest puzzles. You can also turn on three helpers: see wrong letters, show a word, show five letters. Each puzzle is worth some amount of points but I'm not sure using the helpers docks you any points.

Overall it makes for a leisurely puzzle solving time. Maybe a bit too easy though -- I'm at the 490th puzzle and it's no harder then the first few puzzles. It's a good few hours of fun but lacks challenge.

Update (2024-01-19): This game was renamed to Crossword Explorer+. Continued my play for half an hour (getting to the 500th puzzle) and it's still the same game with the same sort of puzzles.