I’ve been a puzzler since I was very young. My mother did the New York Times crossword puzzle every chance she got, and usually got about half of the Sunday puzzle done–which is no small feat, as any crossword aficionado can tell you. My father was of a similar bent, but preferred puzzles that were more outside the box (oh God forgive me I’m so sorry for that pun). He listened to the NPR Puzzler regularly, and even won an edition once. (His prize included several books of sudoku, which I promptly stole.) But crosswords are very much a product of their time (the early 1900s). They take significant time to piece together, requiring an attention span that lots of puzzle-minded folks today just don’t have. What’s a word puzzler to do?
The answer, it turns out, is to make crosswords shorter–and more interactive. App developers at Minimega have unveiled Bonza, a new type of word puzzle that boils crosswords down to their roots and adds a 21st-century spin. Instead of having an empty grid and filling it all in, players are given a set of letters that are connected in strange shapes. There is only one clue–a category for all the words that can be formed with these shapes. Players must then drag the letters next to each other to form words that match the clue.
These puzzles begin simply, but quickly become more complex. The ten-level starter pack includes such devilish mysteries as the “Compass” level. There are only four answers–north, south, east, and west. These levels introduce the game’s concept, but also lull players into a sense of false security. The first pack that follows is much trickier. One of the final puzzles in this pack is simply called “Metropolis,” consisting of nine major cities throughout the world.
Bonza is definitely a new way of training your brain to look at words, and it might just be the new wave of crossword puzzling in the 21st century. You should give it a try, and check out BonzaAnswers.com if you get stuck.
