Puzzazz Crossword & Puzzle Reviews

by Rgarner

I have at length looked for tutorials of how to use the Apple Pencil with the different puzzles on Puzzazz but have yet to find one, and while most of the writing technique is pretty intuitive, I’m extremely frustrated that there is not an easily find-able guide to how to write letters and numbers for each type of puzzle and what might be the most efficient way to use the Pencil on each puzzle. The only reason to use PuzzazzCrosswordPuzzle is because you want to utilize your Pencil while playing games making the omission of a help section especially problematic, hence the one star review. It would be a five star review if this matter was addressed.

by Gregherk

I find it clunky and hard to navigate. I cannot move very easily between across and down or between clues. Have to find and click on the arrows rather than swiping which is much more intuitive.

by Francosteen

I got this specifically to use with my pencil, but the letter recognition is still so poor and extremely frustrating. The crosswords specifically barely recognize letters unless it’s an L, O or I. I followed instructions with how to best write out letters but it still barely worked. 90% of the time trying to write a letter just made the box switch from the across clues to the down clues.

by Srosen419

I've been looking for a crossword app that works with Apple Pencil. Although PuzzazzCrosswordPuzzle offers writing recognition, it is FRUSTRATING to use. Resting your hand on the screen (which is natural) switches to another clue. Touching the Apple Pencil to the box switches between the horizontal and vertical clues. PuzzazzCrosswordPuzzle also has a hard time recognizing my writing, even after modifying my strokes per the suggestions in the help section. I hope they continue to update PuzzazzCrosswordPuzzle with better writing functionality. PuzzazzCrosswordPuzzle could be so great!

by RightReviewer

Some freely puzzles. Would prefer subscription available to cover all puzzles. I’m waiting for it!

by Bermuda Bill

I have just started using PuzzazzCrosswordPuzzle and find it delightful. There is one improvement I would like to see - having the option to see one clue at a time. This would allow the keyboard to be bigger and allow more room for the grid as well. The NYTimes crossword app does this and on an iPhone with its screen it’s much easier to use.

by Player Cr

All my purchased KekKen games disappeared after the last update! How do I recover them?
Was unable to select a subject in the drop down bar to submit this to the developer.
This is my first glitch in PuzzazzCrosswordPuzzle - otherwise - I LOVE PuzzazzCrosswordPuzzle!

by Brucery

I enjoy using Puzzazz on a daily basis. First of all, it's a very good app for solving crosswords -- I find it very easy to solve with the user interface, much easier than alternatives. It has handwriting recognition for those who like that, but even my slow typing is better than my bad handwriting. Puzzazz also does a great job with tricky crosswords that use "rebuses" (more than one letter in a square to solve).

Puzzazz lets you solve puzzles that you buy in PuzzazzCrosswordPuzzle (I highly recommend the UK-style cryptic crosswords from The Nation), it lets you solve your NYT puzzles in Puzzazz (NYT puzzle subscription required), and it even lets you import other .puz file crosswords into PuzzazzCrosswordPuzzle from independent crossword creators.

For an app that brings a crossworder joy on a daily basis, it's a wonderful bargain and I can't recommend it enough.

by JerseyGirlJune2020

I've tried many xword apps, and this is the best. I love the Touchwrite handwriting system. Stable, supports all kinds of variations and special features, occasional freebies... It has everything.

by Miapayne

This is the best crossword puzzle app I have found. I like that you can see the whole puzzle and the keyboard at the same time, unlike other puzzle apps. You can try out a puzzle book before purchasing and there is a variety of difficulty levels. They have all sorts of word puzzles to choose from, though I personally just like crosswords. My only fear is that I will run out of crossword books!
Thank you for making this perfect app!

by Jonathan Stine

Puzzazz offers great puzzles and a variety of ways to solve them. If you want to type in the answers you can. I prefer to use the TouchWrite method using my finger for crosswords. The developer is incredibly responsive and helpful. Great app!

by Missuzala

I was an hour into a 5-hour flight when I discovered my ebook hadn’t downloaded correctly. Thank goodness my Puzzazz books worked perfectly. I recommend Puzzling Pairs, Drop Quotes, and Show me the Vowels to help the time fly.

by Smoakes

I’ve been using Puzzazz for ages, and realized I’d never told anyone how GREAT it is. We especially love the cryptic crosswords, because it gives us the divisions and clue types if we need them — but only if we need them.

by JSH3017

PuzzazzCrosswordPuzzle itself is well-designed and useful, but the unique Year of Puzzles book is what gets this five stars. I am in the midst of solving it and it is an absolute blast—so clever and different. I’ve grown a bit tired of the daily NYT Crossword, and this is the antidote. It will really get the juices flowing. Check it out!

by JonBristow

The support for puz files is also amazing!

I’m primarily a keyboard user, but the note taking is simple and the answer entry fairly straightforward.

I only have a few improvements I would make:

• Add more cell markup options (maybe 8 other colors for shading? For sudoku, I like both center and corner notes too, but that sounds harder from a software perspective)
• Add more varied puzzle books! I haven’t found any killer or sandwich sudoku books yet (please prove me wrong, I have cash in hand!) and the Maze of Games is an amazing conversion, so I know this software can handle it!
• An idea of what books have been added when so I can see the cool new books I’m missing.

by Rollingdonut

I have used Puzzazz for years as my go-to crossword app, on both an aging iPad and my iPhone. Works great. And I am a big fan of drawing the letters with my fingers (though there is a keyboard available as well). It works great for the New York Times puzzle, as well as puzzles I download from independent creators. It also works for a bunch of other kind of puzzles… But I haven’t tried much of that yet.

by DadOfEgg

I have solved more than 3000 puzzles in PuzzazzCrosswordPuzzle . It offers a plethora of excellent puzzles written by the best constructors operating today. The prices are incredibly reasonable and the value is excellent. There are many freebies available so you can try before you buy. It's the only app that perfectly replicates the New York Times print crossword. PuzzazzCrosswordPuzzle is taking too much of my time and that's the best evidence of its excellence!

by Debeep1339

I’m was no longer able to download/open puzzles from Brendan Emmett Quigley; they always worked before (for years) and they open in the “Crossword” app. I got a message saying to contact the author, which I did. Author said Roy would look into it - I missed the reply message. Roy did respond and fixed the problem in a timely manner. Thank you very much!

by Oddsoxx

It took a little practice with the Apple Pencil to get the letters right consistently but it works great now! I love the variety of puzzles and the fact that I can do one or two in each book before deciding whether to buy the book or not.

I’ve always enjoyed crossword puzzles in paper form but not so much on the iPad until I discovered Puzzazz. Being able to write in the answers as opposed to typing on a little keyboard, makes it perfect for me.

by Need All Backgrounds

This is the best app for crosswords I’ve ever found. It’s very intuitive and easy to use. It makes my crosswords even more fun because it has all the preferences I could want, and it presents the grid just as it is in print. It’s really the best crossword app on offer, and I’ve tried a LOT of them.