Everyone knows and loves the New York Times games. Whenever we have downtime in any of our classes or finish homework, we rush to nytimes.com to play every game on the site. As a New York Times games connoisseur, I believe myself and some other Royal gamers to be incredibly eligible to contribute ratings to some of the most popular games and to tell you which games are hot and which are not.
The Crosswords
As a non-paying New York Times game player, I rarely get to play the full-size crossword. However, when I do, I find it to be really fun. The clues aren’t too hard to figure out, and the mechanics of the game are pretty smooth. However, I’m always able to finish it quite quickly, and I personally need something that’s going to keep me entertained for a long period of time. I’d give the full-size crossword a middle-ground score of 5/10.
When I go to play the New York Times games, I ALWAYS start with the mini. The mini crossword is like a smaller, more clever-worded version of the full-size one, ranging anywhere from four to five clues for down and across. The mini can sometimes be tricky, especially because of the awkward wording of some clues. Across the board, the mini crossword is a Rosary favorite.
Senior Siena Lopez shares her opinion: “The mini crossword is one of my favorites to do. Honestly, I will cheat and use the autocheck sometimes because it can be really hard (sorry not sorry). Also, it really affects my mood for the day depending on how well I do. I’d give the mini crossword a solid 7.5/10 because it is both rewarding and challenging.”
Wordle
The Wordle is New York Times’ baby. As of January 2024, Wordle has almost three million players worldwide, making it the most popular game on the site. While it’s definitely the world’s favorite logic game, it’s Brooke Skipton ‘24’s favorite too: “I would rate the Wordle a 10/10 because it’s a good game to get you thinking, and it’s quick enough to do every morning. I see no flaws.”
Most top-tier Wordle players have a “starting word,” or a word they’ll guess every time they play to try and get the most letters correct. Brooke offers her starting word, “My go-to starting word is either ‘Aisle’ because of the three vowels, or ‘Crout’ because of the other two vowels.” Being able to figure out where the vowels in the word go makes it much easier to continue guessing!
Connections
Connections is NYT’s newest hit game. The aim of the game is to group four sets of four words that share a common thread. Sometimes the Connections answers are puns, plays-on-words, and sometimes they are just downright impossible. Senior Marci Rau gives her honest opinion, “Connections definitely gets a 9/10. It would be a 10/10 if it weren’t for the increasing difficulty within the past few weeks. Nonetheless, it’s super satisfying whenever I find the purple or blue categories first (the hardest ones), and I love starting my day with a challenge. Connections is by far my favorite NYT game!”
Spelling Bee
The Spelling Bee is probably one of the harder New York Times games. The game combines unscrambling words and putting together new words. The more words you make, the more points you gain. The objective is to make the pangram, or the word involving all letters given. Natalia Chavez ‘24 provides her rating: “I would rate it a solid 7/10; the only reason it’s not higher is because sometimes I can’t get the pangram, and it makes me sad. It’s super fun to think about how to use all the letters for one word because it’s usually not one you instantly think of. I also like the satisfaction of getting the hardest word given using the letters, especially when I get it first try.”
Tiles
Tiles is definitely less popular than the other games, but is my favorite game on the website. New York Times describes this game as “matching tiles to keep your chain going.” Tiles has different patterns in rotation every day to keep its users guessing. The Tiles is incredibly chill and low-stakes, unlike the other New York Times games. As a result, I give Tiles a whopping 12/10. If you haven’t played Tiles before, start immediately.
Here’s our final rating of the New York Times games:
Full-Size Crossword: 5/10
Mini-Crossword: 7.5/10
Wordle: 10/10
Connections: 9/10
Spelling Bee: 7/10
Tiles: 12/10
Royals, if you have not yet incorporated the New York Times games into your daily routine, hopefully this article inspired you to do so. These awesome and educational games are so fun to play!
