Review: Telegraph Crosswords

Posted by Eric G on December 19th, 2010 | 0 Comments | Tags: Telegraph Crosswords

What can I say about Telegraph Crosswords? Well, it’s a crossword puzzle game from the publisher of other casual games such as Spot the Differences and Actual Crimes: Jack the Ripper. Also, it’s a crossword puzzle game. Did I mention that already?

Telegraph Crosswords is a good game. There are 500 different puzzles to choose from, and each is timed from the point you start playing to the point you complete the puzzle. This adds a bit of replayability, I suppose, or perhaps some multiplayer appeal (passing the PSP to a friend to attempt to beat your score). The interface is extremely user-friendly, offering multiple ways to move around the puzzle and enter answers. You could choose to scroll through the clues one by one, or move the cursor with the analogue stick to the space you wish to fill in. You enter letters by using an on-screen keyboard that pops up when you select a square. After you enter a letter, it moves to the next space automatically. You don’t have to enter all of the letters at once, though. If you get stumped, you can press Δ to fill in a letter at the cost of 1 minute added to your time. When you finish a word, any wrong letters are outlined in red and you’re penalized 30 seconds per wrong letter.

The main problem I have with the game is that it’s not localized for an American audience. The entire game uses the Queen’s English, which means ‘practice’ = ‘practise’, etc. Also, I found several clues unanswerable because I have no idea what a “Fenland cathedral town” or a “Bristol Channel isle” is. To knock a crossword puzzle for being difficult isn’t really fair, but I found the difficulty stemmed mainly from the obscure foreign (to me, at least) references.

Telegraph Crosswords is the best crossword puzzle game I have every played. To be honest, I haven’t played any other crossword puzzle games. I have, however, filled in my fair share of pencil-and-paper puzzles. I was pleasantly surprised to find how easily enjoyable the experience is on the PSP. I found myself using the hint button fairly liberally, but that’s only because I’m an American who loves America (which means I don’t know anything about the rest of the world). What I like about Telegraph Crosswords is that it’s more convenient to play than a crossword is to fill in. A train commute, for example, would be the perfect time to play Telegraph Crosswords. If you like crossword puzzles and own a PSP, it’s definitely worth checking out.

For more info on our review policy click here. This review is for the PlayStation Portable version of the game.