New York Times Games ranking and review

Opinions

Mar 5

The good, the bad, and the boring of the New York Times Games section

Claire Wang, Staff Writer

The games section of the New York Times (NYT) website has captivated many a lost soul; those wandering the halls of their school laptop, tugging experimentally at the locked doors of blocked, “unblocked” game websites. Within this wasteland, the NYT website offers a welcome oasis. Games! Unblocked! A distraction from the tedious monotony of daily school life! But not all games are winners. Some are just not that fun, and that’s okay!

Unfortunately, for just today, it’s not okay. Because I, as an authority on all things NYT games, have decided to ruthlessly rank and review each game with my discerning eye.

The New York Times knocked it out of the park on their very first try. The first NYT game (apart from the standard crossword launched in 1942) to debut was the Mini Crossword in 2014. It stands today as the clear king of NYT games. The mini crossword is, as its name suggests, a miniature version of a classic crossword. The nature of a crossword makes it inherently impossible to fail, as there is an unlimited amount of tries and no fail state, which makes the Mini less frustrating than some other classic NYT games like Wordle and Connections. It's snappy and quick and still provides that rush of satisfaction. The Mini's timed nature makes it the best game to compete with friends in as well. Long story short, the Mini is a masterpiece. The Mini wakes me up in the morning. I open my computer, and my fingers tremble as I pull up the page. I am constantly feining for one more go at the mini crossword.

Next up is a more niche game, one that many will not know- it's Flashback! Unlike most NYT games, Flashback tests your history knowledge. The player starts off with a historical event and the date it occurred and must place the subsequent events in the correct order on the timeline. The game gets harder as it progresses, creating an addictive ramp-up in difficulty. The game is just undeniably fun, with the perfect balance of challenge and reward. The only aspect of Flashback that puts a damper on my love for it is how easy it is to fail. With only eight events to place in order, there isn't much space for error. Though, can any of us say that we are entirely perfect? We all have flaws, and I still love Flashback with all my heart. Flashback refreshes weekly, with a new game released Friday at midnight. Truly, a wonderful end to the week that leaves me looking forward to a new day.

Connections. An old frenemy of mine. So satisfying when done well, but often so very frustrating. Connections provides the player with 16 words or phrases, which the player then has to group into four groups of four based on common traits. These groups can be anything ranging from "Timekeeping Devices" (clock, hourglass, sundial, watch) to bogus categories like "Radio Hall of Fame Members" (glass, gross, king, stern). On occasion, Connections is perfect. You spend the perfect amount of time racking your brain and come out victorious. But then, the next day, you open up Connections and lose after spending 15 minutes staring blankly at the screen. You lose and see that the purple category that you lost to was some nonsense like "Objects Featured in the 1962 Film 'Lawrence of Arabia.'" It makes me sick.

Wordle, while originally not a NYT game, is a certified classic. Wordle went viral in late 2021 and was sold to NYT in early 2022, arguably what started the NYT game craze. Wordle asks for the player to guess a five-letter word by inputting other five-letter words. Each letter of each word the player inputs fills in with either the color grey (meaning the letter is not in the word), yellow (meaning the letter is in the word, but in the wrong spot), or green (meaning the letter is both in the word and in the correct spot). The player must utilize these clues to find the correct word within six guesses. Wordle is fun, evidenced by the millions of daily players, but it can get repetitive. The format of the game doesn't allow for much reinvention, and while it's true that the repetition can be a source of charm for some players, I personally don't find myself reaching for Wordle first. WordleBot, the NYT bot that analyzes your Wordle attempt, having a paywall doesn't help this feeling either. All in all, Wordle is a fun, classic game that I more often play than don't, but it's a bit too repetitive and luck-based to beat the top NYT game contenders.

Strands was only added in March 2024, making it the baby of the NYT games catalog. Still, it has managed to find a place among the other games as a word search with a funky twist! But, I hate that funky twist. Strands doesn't give the player a list of the words they should be searching for, instead offering a clever little phrase that encompasses all the words, akin to a crossword clue. Therein lies the problem. Crossword clues work because when they are weird and hard to decipher, you can move on, figure out some other clues, and come back when you have more letters placed. Strands doesn't have that. In Strands, if the clue doesn't make sense, the game backs you into a solid brick wall of despair and isolation. In Strands, the game forces you to use hints. That's right. Strands forces you into the shameful depravity that is using hints. Nothing is more embarrassing than looking "perfect!" - earning friends right in their beady eyes and admitting that you used hints.

I'm not very good at Spelling Bee. Spelling Bee asks its players to make as many words as possible using the seven letters provided, requiring one specific letter to be in each word. The longer the word, the more points the player scores. I'm the worst at word games like this. Never ever invite me to play a game of Game Pigeon Anagrams, because I will lose so hard and subsequently lose my mind. I'll admit it. Spelling Bee is only this low because I suck at it. Its only true flaw is that it's difficult for the player to feel rewarded, as the "win" state requires the player to obtain the top rank Genius, which is very difficult. Otherwise, the player just has to quit when they feel as if they have exhausted all their knowledge or they're satisfied with their lower score. Also, Spelling Bee has a paywall requiring an NYT account. But it's not like I like playing it anyway. God, I'm pathetic.

Letter Boxed (which, to be clear, is distinct from Letterboxd, the film discussion and review app) is a game involving a square with three letters lining each of the four sides. The player must create words with the letters along the sides, and consecutive letters cannot be from the same side. The last letter of each word created becomes the first letter of the next word. The fewer words needed to use up all 12 letters, the better. Letter Boxed is so hard. It's just way too hard. I mean, I can get it in three to five words, but then the next day, they give the shortest possible answer to the previous day's Letter Boxed, and it's some nonsense like "JUVENILIA - ACQUIRED," and it breaks my spirit. How can I, a lowly buffoon, find the words juvenilia and acquired from that mess of letters? Whatever. I am smart. I am smart.

"Claire, you're crazy," you cry. "How can the Mini Crossword be so high and the Crossword so low?" I'll tell you how. The Mini is a cute, dainty thing, usually a five-by-five grid and rarely ever more than seven by seven. The Crossword? The Crossword is a beast. A 20 million by 20 million letter grid. No hyperbole. Check for yourself! Simply glancing at the Crossword sends me into a spiral of cosmic insignificance and dread, similar to the way that one would feel when gazing at Cthulhu. It's impossible to overcome this monster without 30 minutes to spare and a brain the size of an adult corgi (i.e., a huge, ginormous brain). "Maybe you're just not that smart. Ever thought about that? I do the Crossword just fine," you crow. Well, I have thought about that. And the conclusion I came to is this: it's my list, so I don't care. Also, the Crossword has a paywall, so I can't even play it unless my good friend, who shall remain unnamed, lets me play on her account. So maybe YOU should think about that.

Vertex is a slightly more complicated connect-the-dots. I turn to Vertex when I'm desperate. Nary a lie may pass my lips. I hate to speak ill of the dead (NYT discontinued Vertex on Aug. 19, 2024, R.I.P.), but to be completely honest, it's at best a time-waster when I've exhausted all other NYT games and Quordle AND Octordle. In my humble opinion, Vertex just isn't that interesting or fun, and it's only higher than the next two games as a favor for my good friend, who loved Vertex.

Sudoku is a yawn fest. I get so bored playing Sudoku that I'm practically living in Yawn City. Sure, I never properly learned how to play Sudoku. Sure, I can never clear a difficulty harder than Easy. But I would never let petty differences affect my ranking. Sudoku is just boring. And in the game world, there is no greater crime than boredom. Sudoku needs to face jail time and, possibly, capital punishment.

Tiles is a match game. It's also boring and way too easy. End of story. Execute Tiles too.

At the end of the day, there's a place for all games at NYT. Maybe some fool actually likes Tiles. After all, my good friend, who will still remain unnamed, loved Vertex before it passed. Sudoku might be some poor sap's favorite. Every game deserves to exist, regardless of how fun it is. Here's my ranking of which games deserve to exist the most, in order.