The only puzzle magazine worth buying

I've bought many puzzle magazines in my day. Most of them are thick with pulpy low-quality paper that's hard to write on. They're jam-packed with dozens of boring crosswords and mind-numbing logic puzzles, and they try to cram as many puzzles of the same type onto each page. But there's not an ounce of creativity in the whole thing.

I stopped buying these the first time I picked up GAMES World of Puzzles. They're not very thick, but the creativity and quality of each issue makes up for it.

Each issue has quite a few "normal" crossword puzzles of varying difficulty (rated from 1 to 3 stars). In addition, there's always a large number of crossword variations, where you'll be entering the words in spirals, hexagons, long unbroken or twisting strings, or a dozen others. These require a little bit more logic than the average crossword.

The cryptic crosswords provide the most challenge. If you've never tried one, well... let's just say it took me almost 6 years of doing them monthly before I finished one! They're that hard, but each clue you get right is extremely satisfying. I've seen cryptics elsewhere, but none as good as these.

The crosswords are just the beginning. Each issue also has logic puzzles like the outstanding Paint-By-Numbers and Battleships; other classic puzzles like Double-Crostics, fill-ins and cryptograms; trademark puzzles such as the 500 Rummy word game and Pencil Pointers; and an 8- or 10-page special section of themed puzzles in the middle. Even the one or two word searches in each issue have themes, and usually some sort of twist to make them interesting.

I recommend you subscribe to both GAMES World of Puzzles as well as GAMES magazine. With the latter, you'll get about a quarter of the number of puzzles you'd get in World of Puzzles, along with articles about games of all kinds (board games, video games, etc.) plus the standard magazine stuff like letters to the editor, contests, short briefs and game reviews.

Best Puzzle Magazine I've Seen

World of Puzzles, from the editors of GAMES Magazine, is the best puzzle magazine I've seen. If you enjoy fresh and invigorating brain-twisting puzzles, World of Puzzles is the magazine for you. It outdistances even GAMES Magazine for people like me who are interested in the pencil puzzles. On the other hand, if you're also interested in board game reviews and interesting essays, perhaps GAMES Magazine would be better, as World of Puzzles is composed of nothing but pages and pages of fascinating and imaginative puzzles. Difficulties range from the simple crosswords, word searches, and cryptograms found in the first few pages to the mind-numbing puzzles in the back. The difficult ones are the most interesting: many are one-of-a-kind puzzles, unlike anything you've ever seen before. Word puzzles tend to be in the majority, but math and logic puzzles are also popular. In addition, nearly every month World of Puzzles runs a contest puzzle. Solve this puzzle and mail in your answer, and if you're correct, you have a shot at a thousand dollars!

If you enjoy pencil puzzles, word games, math and logic, or even just crosswords and word searches, you should definitely give World of Puzzles a try. You won't regret your decision.