You know those big fat puzzle books you used to buy before you went on vacation? They’d be full of so many crosswords, word-searches and other mindless diversions that you could spend an entire week in a foreign country without seeing a single thing but the rough, badly-printed pages.
Now that wonderfully reclusive experience is available on the iPad, in the first game to be sold in the iOS Newsstand.
The app is called Mini Arrowheads, and it comes from the hallowed pages of the UK’s Take A Break magazine. It features “arrowhead” puzzles, which are some bastardized form of quiz and crossword. In fact, for our US friends, they will look a lot like the children’s puzzles you somehow have the nerve to call “crosswords” over there.
But the quality of the game is moot. The big news here is that there are games in the Newsstand store, and that – of course – you can buy subscriptions to these games. This opens the way for real English-style cryptic crosswords, I guess, but also for all manner of previously paper-based games.
Sudoku is an obvious choice, despite the crazy amount of adding apps already in the store. But what about choose-your-own adventure books? Would they be allowed, or are they too non-linear?
It’ll be interesting to see what turns up next. I love the fact that my copy of the Guardian just shows up on my iPad every day, and does it without me having to tip the paper boy at Christmas time. Maybe it’ll work for games, too.
Source: iTunes Store
Via: Touch Arcade
