If you haven’t been living under a rock lately, you know that the New York Times (NYT) Games is the new craze that people will not stop talking about. Whether you’ve heard about it via social media or from your fellow classmates trying to solve the daily puzzles in class, the NYT Games has everyone in a chokehold.
There are a total of nine games: Wordle, Crossword, Mini Crossword, Connections, Spelling Bee, Letterboxed, Vertex, Tiles, and Sudoku. Each game is updated daily so there’s always a new puzzle to solve. Unless you have a subscription, you have to wait until the next day to play. However, this is half of its appeal. Getting to play a new game daily and eagerly waiting for the puzzle tomorrow makes it exciting for many.
Meghan Rohrich said, “I’ll be sitting in class and suddenly the kids behind me will start playing the connections and end up spoiling the daily puzzle for me. It’s a little irritating but It’s also just crazy to see how widespread it is”. Norah Smith agrees, “My favorite game is connections. I love playing with other people and guessing together. It’s nice to see how much people bond or relate to each other. Like the April fools day puzzle that had everyone confused”.
Although the NYT Games is not exactly a new craze. In late 2022, the Wordle was all the hype. From teachers to students, all ages could enjoy solving this word guessing game. Wordle is still a game many people indulge in, however, recently Connections is everyones favorite.
Junior Layla Sheikh-Mohamed stated, “I absolutely love playing connections. It’s so fun to see the absurd categories that they come up with and try to guess beforehand.”
These games aren’t like “normal” website games. Puzzle games reinforce the brain cells and improve mental speed, overall improving your short term memory. NYT Games are brain-stimulating games, a form of exercise for your brain. The more you play, the better you get and the more skills you gain to complete them faster each day.
Junior Beatrice Holterhaus said, “My favorite NYT Games are Connections and the Spelling Bee. It feels like I’m playing a game but it doesn’t feel like I’m rotting my brain. Also when I flawlessly solve the connections I feel like a genius.”
If you’re interested or curious about these puzzles check out: https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords and see if you get hooked on the craze of these games too.
