Crossword: Arrow Words for iPhone – Review
Category: Games
Price: $3.99
TiP Rating: 4/5 stars
Release Date: Updated October 9, 2011
Version: 1.3
Seller: the binary family GmbH
Rated: 4+
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later.
Link to app
App Store Description: Arrow Words is a classic crossword app with a useful twist. In arrow words puzzles, the clues are shown right in the puzzle grid, making them easy to view and play on the iPhone screen.
This lovingly produced app includes 400 all-new Arrow Words puzzles in 4 levels. Easier levels use simpler words and get smaller grid, perfect for a short break. Harder levels have tougher clues and larger puzzle grids for hours of challenging fun. Also, careful editing and a huge pool of words ensure that clues don’t repeat too often.
Summary: A new take on crossword puzzles that includes clues within the grid, making it easier to play on the iPhone.
Review: With its clean and user-friendly interface, Crossword: Arrow Words is easily one of my favorite apps.
Upon launching the app you’re given the option to choose between easy, normal, difficult, and very difficult. Each difficulty level has 100 puzzles – except the free version of the app, which offers three puzzles per category. Any level is open to play, meaning you don’t have to complete the easy puzzles before moving on to the difficult ones. The only catch is that you cannot revisit puzzles that you’ve already completed – then again, why would you want you?
You’re also given three display options – classic, news, and colour – that are well-designed and make completing a crossword puzzle on the iPhone easy. The app uses large boxes and the inline arrows are, for the most part, easy to follow. The only time this can become challenging is when the puzzle becomes larger and you have to scroll from right to left to view the entire thing. This happens on the normal, difficult and very difficult levels.
The inline arrows provide you with a clue and the direction in which the word will be displayed. When you click on a box the keyboard will pop up as the clue and the number of letters within the word will also appear. I found that while moving around the screen that I accidentally pulled up the keyboard when I didn’t mean to, covering part of the screen. This can get quite annoying after a while.
There is a Help button that offers a few different options. You can choose to have just a letter revealed, or the entire word. There doesn’t seem to be any consequence for asking for help, other than that word changing colors. A handy option is locating your errors. You won’t be able to move on to the next game until the current one is complete. So if you find yourself stuck, you can tap “mark errors” and it will show you any letters that are incorrect.
Additionally, the game keeps track of your progress and pops up a quick message letting you know when you’ve completed X percent of the puzzle. You can also go back to the main menu where you can see your progress and time.
The app is solid and extremely easy to look at on a small screen. Although there is some scrolling, it’s much better than having to constantly scroll up and down to check the clues. There is a version available for the iPad as well, and it comes with many more games. It’s worth checking out the free version first, but I’m sure if you’re a fan of crossword puzzles that you’ll be willing to part with $3.99.
