DaveF

Word & Puzzle games on portable system?games

My wife likes to play short-duration word and puzzle games on her PDA. The practical problem is the battery life is pretty short (3-5 hrs) which can then hinder practical work, like planning, shopping lists, etc.

So I've considered getting her a portable game system. Do any of the portable game systems, either brand new or a generation or so old, have a good library of fun Word and Puzzle games?

Any suggestions and links would be appreciated.

Steve Y

Re: Word & Puzzle games on portable system?games

Hi Dave,

While not super-heavy on the word games, the Nintendo DS is the best pick-up-and-play portable console system for puzzle games. The DS is friendly to all ages and genders, and contains a wealth of great puzzle games (more coming). Not all of them are classics, but the following games can be counted upon for hours of enjoyment:

Picross DS
New York Times Crossword Puzzles (this has gotten good reviews)*
Brain Age 2 (containing word scrambles and sudoku)*
Tetris DS
Planet Puzzle League
Clubhouse Games*

I have marked the games that have word puzzles. There aren't nearly as many straight "word games" available for the system as for some PDAs (which often have small keyboards), but they do exist, and overall the DS is (IMO) "friendlier" to non-gamers than the (still great) Sony PSP. Also, it's cheaper, and the battery life is decent.

Morgan Jolley

Re: Word & Puzzle games on portable system?games

Between Picross and Brain Age, your wife should be set. Seriously, I stopped playing everything else I had for about a month straight because of Picross.

Chris Lockwood

Re: Word & Puzzle games on portable system?games

Brain Age 2 doesn't really have word puzzles, unless you count unscrambling one word at a time as a puzzle... it's more of a quiz.

It's worth getting, just don't consider it a puzzle game.

The NY Times Crosswords is good if you like crosswords.