Capsule Review: Bonza Word Puzzle
A sort of inverted crossword puzzle where you are given several clumps of letters that must be arranged on a grid to spell intersecting words that all match the specified clue. Clues might be cateories (“Winter Sports”), incomplete phrases that each word completes (“Eye of the…"), or themes (“Christmas Day”).
Eventually the clues become deliberately obscured by being presented as a pun-style hint (“Watch Your Mouth” for oral anatomy) or hiding all but the first letter (such as “C—————"). Thus a greater percentage of playtime is spent trying to understand the clue itself rather than finding the words that match it. To me, this guesswork felt more arbitrary and less enjoyable and I stopped playing. Someone who enjoys deciphering crossword clues may have a better time.
I Stopped Playing When: After a few weeks of playing occasionally on the train or waiting in line, the puzzle themes got less clear and I didn’t enjoy teasing them out before I could productively look for words.
Two Stars: Meh. The game has some merit - it probably held my attention for at least an hour or I came back to it for more than one play session. But there wasn't enough draw for me to stick with it for the long haul.