Puzzler Collection (Nintendo DS)

...for the Nintendo DS game, Puzzler Collection, developed and published by Destination Software. Puzzler Collection consists of four sub games, crosswords, word search, fitword and sudoku.

There are lots of options in this game, which is based around the four different sub games. In the crossword mode, there are general knowledge and specialist crosswords to work through. There is the traditional word search where you find words in a straight ...
...of the puzzles from the Puzzler Magazine, which this game is based around, aren't available. Some more different challenges, even if they were occasional, would have been a valuable addition to this game.

The controls in the game are good, primarily using the touch screen and the stylus as the input method. This is occasionally frustrating when you can't get the stylus to select the words or selections that you wanted to, but is much ... more

This review is for the Nintendo DS game, Puzzler Collection, developed and published by Destination Software. Puzzler Collection consists of four sub games, crosswords, word search, fitword and sudoku.

There are lots of options in this game, which is based around the four different sub games. In the crossword mode, there are general knowledge and specialist crosswords to work through. There is the traditional word search where you find words in a straight line, although they can be horizontal, vertical or diagional, amidst a range of letters.

The other two games are fitword and sudoku. With Fitword you are given a list of words and a grid similar to that off a crossword puzzle, and you have to fit the list of words into the grid, as there is only one way of fitting all of the words in. Sudoku is the game made popular recently, where you have to fit numbers into a grid so that no number is repeated either horizontally or vertically.

There are two thousand puzzles in the game in total, and you can play the game across three different difficulty levels. This is a good number of puzzles, although there are other games on the market, such as Sudoku, which came with literally hundreds of thousands of different puzzles. However, the range of modes and difficulty levels do present a good challenge.

The range of puzzles is good, but it's a shame that more of the puzzles from the Puzzler Magazine, which this game is based around, aren't available. Some more different challenges, even if they were occasional, would have been a valuable addition to this game.

The controls in the game are good, primarily using the touch screen and the stylus as the input method. This is occasionally frustrating when you can't get the stylus to select the words or selections that you wanted to, but is much more frustrating when you are playing in the timed puzzles.

There are a range of different ways in which you can play the game as well. The tournament mode allows you to play across the four puzzles, which become ever more difficult. Every time that you progress you gain more experience, and your aim is to reach the highest level, that level of enlightenment.

The other modes which you can play the game in are quick blast, where you tell the Nintendo DS what time of puzzle you want and the level of the challenge, and it provides you with the most appropriate. You can then measure your performance across a period of time, as the game provides you with puzzles of a similar challenge every time.

The other ways of playing the game are simply puzzle, fast and fun and head to head. Simply puzzle is similar, but without the other challenges, you are just presented with a puzzle meeting your requirements. The fast and fun mode allows you to pick the challenge that you want, but you have to race against the clock to finish, and head to head is a multi player challenge.

The game currently retails for 19.99 pounds but is available on Amazon for 9.99 pounds. If you're happy with a second hand copy, these are available at the time of writing for around seven pounds on sites such as eBay and Amazon. The game is rated as 3+, so is suitable for children of most ages.

In summary, this is a very good game, well produced and with lots of long term interest. It certainly saves on buying puzzle magazines which you can use only once, and is ideal for the Nintendo DS as it's a portable console with a touch screen. The controls can be frustrating sometimes then they don't appear to be very responsive, and a greater range of puzzles would have been beneficial, but overall, definitely a good purchase, especially at its current cheap price from Amazon.

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