Table of contents for April 2025 in Games World of Puzzles

ACROSS 1 Little bickering episodes 6 Crafts partner 10 Leave helpless with laughter 14 Understood, but not said 15 Harvest 16 Very buzzy place 17 Spotted horse 18 Actor Richard of The Agency 19 Sign of things to come 20 French Revolution period: 3 wds. 23 Lithium-___ battery 24 Six-pack unit 25 It hits the nail on the head 29 Pale 31 Whichever 34 Jai ___ 35 Common street name 37 Spine-tingling 39 Come down in buckets: 4 wds. 42 Bert’s buddy 43 Gymnast Korbut 44 “Understood”: 2 wds. 45 Tussaud’s title: Abbr. 46 Jack or Jill, e.g. 48 Provides food for a party 50 CIA predecessor: Abbr. 51 ___ Lanka 52 Allows to act without restraint: 3 wds. 59 Stay out of sight 60 Opposite of aweather 61 Bogs…

Here’s a simple trivia quiz that’s sure to be fun. Can you match each cartoon character (1–10) to the animated series (a–j) where they appear? Honestly, we think you’ll ace this! ANSWERS, PAGE 79 1. Rebecca Rabbit 2. Miles Morales, aka Spin 3. Squidward 4. Chilli 5. Tooey Ookami 6. Clyde McBride 7. Ryder 8. Doctor Eggman 9. Jake the Dog 10. Buddy Tyrannosaurus a. SpongeBob SquarePants b. Adventure Time c. PAW Patrol d. Dinosaur Train e. Sonic Prime f. Peppa Pig g. The Loud House h. Bluey i. Molly of Denali j. Spidey and His Amazing Friends…

It’s all Greek to us. Find all of the words and phrases listed below in the Greek letter pi, reading horizontally, vertically, and diagonally (always in a straight line). When you get to a consecutive PI, replace it with Π. When you’re done, the uncircled letters will spell something appropriate, yet inexact. ANSWER, PAGE 76 ALTARPIECE ANT PILE APICAL ARMPIT BBQ PIT BEAST EPIC BITTER PILL EPIC FAIL EPISTLE EYEPIT GINGER SPICE LAST PINT LUPINO METAL PIERCING PIBB XTRA PICKAX PICKET PIE PAN PIGGIE PIGSTY PINBALL PIPE UP PIRATE PIROGUE PISA, ITALY PIT COAL PIT STOP PITSAW PITYING PIVOT PIXOLOGIC SPIGOT TOPICS TROPIC TV PILOT…

Each answer in this puzzle has seven letters and fills the spaces surrounding the corresponding number in the diagram, reading either clockwise or counterclockwise. When two answers share a border, letters always match across the border. As an example, we’ve filled in the answer to clue 1, RHUBARB, and parts of answers 2 and 5. ANSWER, PAGE 79 1 Tart pie filling 2 Firefighter-turned-actor Steve 3 Supreme Court VIP 4 Tolerate 5 Load again, as a web page 6 Good for nothing 7 Geology, for example 8 Part of TNT 9 Feathers 10 Niles Crane’s brother 11 Brings joy to 12 Opposite of run-of-the-mill 13 Subject of Newton’s first law of motion 14 Jazz band instrument 15 New Testament letter 16 Uneasy 17 Prison, slangily 18 Soap opera plot device…

I thought it might be fun to use this column to teach you how to create your own grid-based logic puzzle. Let’s revisit the very first puzzle we discovered in this column, back in January 2023. Yajilin is classified as a loop/path puzzle, and is one of my favorite Japanese logic puzzles. The goal of a Yajilin puzzle is to shade some squares, and then draw a loop that visits all unshaded squares. Clues indicate the number of shaded squares in the direction of the arrow. Shaded squares cannot share an edge, and some shaded squares may not be indicated by a clue. Green squares may not be shaded. The loop cannot branch or cross itself. Give this example puzzle a try, and then read on to learn how it…

My recent review of Seers Catalog, a shedding/trick-taking/climbing game, [Ed. Note: see page 47], inspired this month’s choice of card game, since it draws upon elements found in some relative newcomers to the card-playing stage. The style seems to have its origin in either China or Japan, and has been described by John McLeod, a well-known expert on card games, in various articles and posts on his website, Pagat.com. Some of the games, which have been given English names we can’t print in a family magazine, are becoming remarkably popular as their mechanics are picked up by other games and repurposed with new variants. The most prominent is the commercial game Tichu, but Haggis, Cat in the Box, and other commercial versions are also popular, and more seem to be…

Each clue in a cryptic crossword has two parts: a definition of the answer and an indication of the answer’s literal makeup via wordplay. Either half may come first; finding the dividing point between the two parts is the key to solving. On page 61, eight common methods by which hints are given via wordplay are described; any combination of these gimmicks may be used. Expect to see references to abbreviations (doctor for DR, Hawaii for HI, or university for U), chemical symbols (iron for Fe), Roman numerals (five for V), and parts of words (end of year for R, head of cabbage for C, or heart of stone for O). A clue with an exclamation point may be what’s called an & lit. clue, in which the two halves…

Each Across answer in this variety cryptic has stockpiled two or more instances of the same letter, which must be exchanged for a new letter throughout the answer prior to entry. In each case, the resulting grid entry will be a new word; for example, if the answer to an Across clue were BURBLE, the corresponding grid entry might be GURGLE, PURPLE, or TURTLE. Down answers are normal. ANSWERS, PAGE 80 ACROSS 1 I propose swimming with marine animal (8) 6 Languid editor partially assumed the role of director (6) 10 Totally cool, accepting an agreement (8) 11 Respiratory disorder fixed at M*A*S*H (6) 14 Neville playing guitar intro—it’s devastating (8) 15 Simulated Demi Moore’s head, as seen from behind (5) 16 Documents passing copiers (6) 20 Wristband clip (4)…

Each answer in this crossword variation has two clues leading to it, using different meanings of the word. The clues are separated into Across and Down, but are otherwise ordered randomly. When you find two Across or two Down clues that seem to have the same answer, add up their clue numbers to determine the place in the grid at which the answer should be entered. For example, if the clue for 1-Across were “Metallic element” and the clue for 17-Across read “Starring role,” the answer would be LEAD, which would go in 18-Across (1 + 17). Tags such as “Hyph.” and “2 wds.” have been omitted. ANSWER, PAGE 75 ACROSS 1 Church instrument 2 Spectators’ seating area 3 ___ apple 4 Managing to see with some difficulty 5 Bonfire…

All of the celebrities in this puzzle have the same last name: Williams. Using the clues below, can you identify their first names? For example, if the clue were “Former NBC Nightly News anchor,” the answer would be Brian Williams. Simple, right? Now give it a shot! ANSWER, PAGE 72 1. A Streetcar Named Desire playwright 2. He played Mork and Mrs. Doubtfire 3. The first Black Miss America 4. Boston Red Sox slugger known as “The Kid” 5. She played Shirley Feeney on Laverne & Shirley 6. Colt 45 spokesman 7. Country superstar who sang “Your Cheatin’ Heart” 8. Singer of the 2013 hit single “Happy” 9. Academy Award-winning soundtrack composer 10. Actress in Dawson’s Creek and Brokeback Mountain 11. He played Omar Little in HBO’s The Wire 12. Beloved…

In these puzzles, some cells must be shaded so that no digit appears twice in the remaining rows and columns. Shaded cells may not touch horizontally or vertically, but may touch diagonally. However, no part of the diagram may be completely cut off by a chain of diagonally adjacent shaded cells. Hints: If a digit appears just once in a row or column, that does not necessarily mean that it must remain unshaded. If three identical digits appear in a row or column, the middle one remains unshaded, while the other two are shaded. The adjacent cells on the outside of those two digits must remain unshaded themselves ANSWERS, PAGE 75…

The object of this solitaire challenge is to guess a word before making six incorrect guesses, as in a familiar childhood game. To begin, choose any letter of the alphabet that you think might appear in word I below. Suppose you pick E. Go to the Letter Chart on the facing page and find the number listed in row E of column I (because you are working on word I). The number is 90; you now look at box number 90 in the Position Chart (to the right of the Letter Chart) and find the number 2. This means that the letter E occurs in the second position (and nowhere else) in word I. If a letter occurs more than once in a word, the Position Chart will show all…

This puzzle gives you two grids for the price of one. And two sets of clues to go with them, so you can work both crosswords at the same time. What’s the catch? Each clue number is followed by two different clues to two different answers. The puzzle is to figure out which answer goes with which grid. 1-Across has been filled in for you. ANSWERS, PAGE 72 ACROSS 1 One of two Chicago murderesses… …and the other 6 Quiz show filmed in a moving vehicle: 2 wds. City in Arizona or Mexico 13 Brand of nondairy milk Online vending: Hyph. 14 Comic actor Dom Behavior protocol between dudes: 2 wds. 15 Cologne’s river Having some benefit 16 Mine vehicle Like some one-celled organisms 17 Safe, as an investment: Hyph.…

Solve this puzzle as you would a regular crossword, except that each space may hold one, two, or three letters. The number of letters in a space is for you to determine, using logic and the crossing of words. The answer to 1-Across, R-EG-RET, has been filled in as an example. ANSWER, PAGE 72 ACROSS 1 Feel remorse for 4 Quits unexpectedly, as a computer program 8 Facsimiles 12 Love, in Paris 13 Actor Buddy of The Beverly Hillbillies 14 Transplant, as a houseplant 15 “This has wider application than was originally intended”: 6 wds. 18 Suburban shopping area: 2 wds. 19 Sand, essentially 20 Seed used in candy, pastry, and pesto: 2 wds. 23 Sources of creativity, informally 27 Expires, as a subscription 30 Cheering for a team 32…

In 1977, amateur game and puzzle designer Stephen Sniderman heard about a new magazine called GAMES that had just published its third issue. He set about obtaining those issues, noting that the new publication focused on both games and puzzles. At first, Sniderman hesitated to submit his work to GAMES, because he was intimidated by the professional quality of the magazine. So he entered a game design contest in the May/June 1979 issue instead. His game, Non-Equipment Baseball, won the grand prize. Emboldened by this win, Sniderman sent the magazine a puzzle, “Name Droppers,” which was published in the November/December 1980 issue. The above anecdote, recounted by Sniderman in our 40th Anniversary issue, was just the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship with the GAMES family of publications. When…

QUICK, CROSSWORD LOVERS! What’s a 4-letter word for “SZA’s debut album title”? How about a 5-letter word that fills in this blank: “Black girl __”?1 If you enjoyed those clues, then you’ll love Black Crossword, which Juliana Pache founded as a free online mini in January 2023. (You can find them at www.blackcrossword.com.) The daily mini became so popular that Pache quickly followed up with Black Crossword, a collection of 100 mini puzzles, in August 2024. The book was published by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins specializing in African American literature. Crosswords sometimes feel like an unexamined part of pop culture, existing in an ahistorical vacuum and needing no justification. Pache’s puzzles, however, have an explicit point of view. “Black Crossword is a puzzle that emphasizes and highlights Black culture…

This is a classic logic puzzle, with one important difference: All the information in it is factual rather than fictional. If you already know some of the answers, you’ll have a head start in solving the puzzle—but if you don’t, you should be able to figure it out from the clues ANSWERS, PAGE 77 From the late 1940s to the early 1980s, almost every local television station in America had its own children’s show, in which a costumed adult would introduce cartoons and Three Stooges shorts, perform skits, and improvise on camera in ways that would amuse the studio crew and delight children watching at home. Some of these hosts attained national stardom, like Soupy Sales and Bob “Captain Kangaroo” Keeshan, but others were simply beloved in their hometowns. From…

Anagrams: The answer appears in anagrammed form, preceded or followed by a word or phrase that suggests the mixing, as in Changing times for ITEMS. Deletions: Deletions come in three varieties: beheadments, curtailments, and internal deletions. The clue always contains a word or phrase indicating the deletion. Examples: Uncovered bent charm for ENCHANT, a beheadment of PENCHANT; Fiery bird without a tail for FLAMING, a curtailment of FLAMINGO; and Heartless miserly bloke for CHAP, an internal deletion of CHEAP. Charades: The answer is broken into smaller words that are clued individually, as in Auto animal for CARPET. Homophones: A word that sounds like the answer indicated by use of a giveaway phrase such as “We hear” or “as they say.” Example: Counted frozen chicken out loud for NUMBERED (“numb bird”).…

Can you score 500 or more points in Word Rummy hands from the card layout at right? ♠ HOW TO PLAY Find as many common seven-letter words as you can whose cards form Word Rummy hands. A Word Rummy hand is a seven-letter word whose letters appear on cards that make up one set (three or four cards of a kind, like 7 7 7 or K K K K) and one sequence (three or four cards of the same suit in numerical order, like ♠A 2 3 or ♣9 10 J Q). Either the set or the sequence may come first, but one of each must be used in each hand, and the two parts must not be mixed together. The letters of a set may be used in…

MIDDLE SEA The crossword on this and the next two pages has two independent sets of clues: “Hard” and “Easy.” First, fold this page back on the dashed line so the clues below face the solving grid on page 69. If you use only the Hard Clues (appearing below and continuing under the grid), you’ll find the puzzle uncommonly challenging. If you want help, or prefer a less severe challenge, open to the Easy Clues (tucked in beneath your fold on page 68). HARD CLUES ACROSS 1 Modified 9 St. John Passion composer 15 Tallow, e.g. 24 Obey 25 Expenditure 26 Numbing substance 27 Mammal with large cheek pouches 28 One “e” of e.e. cummings 29 What the Hulk goes into when angry 30 On the line 31 Heavy wind 33 Ongoing…

5 | PENCIL POINTERS 1 18 | PENCIL POINTERS 2 4 | 52-SKIDDOO 12 | QUOTE BOXES 1. Editing is largely a rehearsal of all the ways a piece of writing might be misunderstood. —Andrew Katzenstein 2. People are in many respects dismally predictable; voyeurism and vicariousness are hardly unknown in our species. —Laura Kipnis 3. Meeting an author whom you admire is one of life’s most reliably disappointing experiences, starting with what they are wearing. —Billy Collins 16 | BOXING MATCH I. NETWORK II. OVEREXERT III. HALIBUT IV. PULMONARY V. HEPTATHLON VI. GRAPHIC VII. PTOMAINE VIII. MORPHOLOGY IX. EXOTICA X. BAGPIPE XI. POPPYCOCK XII. MARJORAM 51 | DOUBLE CROSS A. VIDEO GAMES B. INFIRM C. NOH THEATER D. CONCHS E. E.M. FORSTER F. NUMBS G. THE WINTER’S TALE H.…

There is one place for each letter of the alphabet in the 26 empty squares of each blank column in the diagram below. Fill in each letter so that a word of at least five letters is formed reading across only. Not all of the letters to the left and right of the empty box are used; it’s up to you to determine which ones are needed to complete familiar words. Some letters may fit in more than one of the empty squares to complete words, but we only came up with one arrangement that would complete a word in each row. Proper names are not allowed. ANSWER, PAGE 70…

There are 18 animal names hidden in this word search grid, reading across, down, and diagonally (both forward and backward). Can you find all of them? Circle the animals as you go and write their names in the spaces below the grid. These animals are the members of a group of creatures that have received a very special honor. After you’ve found them all, read the unused letters from left to right and top to bottom, to reveal the name of the group they belong to. ANSWERS, PAGE 74…

In honor of April 1st, or April Fools’ Day, all the words and phrases listed below begin with a letter in the word APRIL. Fit them into the grid so that they intersect in standard crossword fashion. Each word should be used exactly once. Are you up to the task, or will you be fooled? STARTING HINT, PAGE 72 5 LETTERS AXLED ID TAG IN A MO IN TWO IVORY I WILL LAPEL LET GO LOYAL LULEA PEROT PISAN PRIED RAINA REMIX REPEL ROLLA RURAL 6 LETTERS ADDLED AERATE I’M ON YA IN SITU IT’S A GO LEE ANN LEGATO LESTER LEVIER LISPER LOG OFF LOVE ME PARING PHILIP PORTIA PRATES RAILER RALLYE 7 LETTERS ACT WITH AIR TAXI ANGULAR ART CLUB IDLESSE I WANT IT LAPUTAN LARRUPS PERIDOT P’S…

This puzzle turns in two directions. The spiral’s Inward clues yield a sequence of words to be entered counterclockwise in the spaces from 1 to 100. The Outward clues yield a different set of words to be entered clockwise from 100 to 1. Keep track of which way you’re going, and have many happy returns. ANSWER, PAGE 71 INWARD 1-6 Sponsor 7-12 “There’s no doubt in my mind”: 2 wds 13-17 English royal house from 1485 to 1603 18-23 Tennessee senator Blackburn 24-28 Speaks hoarsely 29-34 “Li’l Abner” cartoonist: 2 wds. 35-39 Most abundant noble gas 40-47 Taken into custody 48-54 Europe’s ___ Peninsula. 55-57 Salad dressing base 58-63 Boundaries 64-68 Dark, earthy pigment 69-75 Common newspaper name 76-80 Mary Poppins or Fran Fine 81-87 Evening device 88-94 Marathoner’s identifier:…

The six puzzles on this page are solitaire versions of the classic paper-and-pencil game of Battleships. Each grid represents a section of ocean in which a fleet is hiding. This fleet consists of one battleship (four grid cells in length), two cruisers (three cells each), three destroyers (two cells each), and four submarines (one cell each). The ships may be oriented either horizontally or vertically, and no two ships can occupy adjacent grid cells, not even diagonally. The digits along the grid’s perimeter indicate the number of cells in the corresponding rows and columns that are occupied by vessels. You’ll notice that some “shots” have been taken to start you off. These may show water (indicated by wavy lines), a complete sub (a circle), the bow or stern of a…

This puzzle consists of nine 5×5 rooms (labeled 1 through 9) with 10 five-letter words or phrases reading across and down within each room. The clues for eight of the answers in each room are given in random order. Each room has a starting letter shown to help you place the answers. (The nine starting letters, appropriately, are an anagram of FLOOR PLAN.) When the puzzle is completed, six familiar 15-letter phrases will read through the open doors between rooms across and down. ANSWER, PAGE 71 ROOM 1 • Seller of litter boxes and chew toys • Paid soldiers, informally • “None of the above” • Potentially offensive, briefly: 2 wds. • Anesthetic of yore • Reinvented self: 2 wds. • Leafy salad green • Hungarian mathematician Paul ROOM 2…

If you love to cut and paste (on your computer or the old-fashioned way), this puzzle is for you! Pick a word that appears in the left-hand column below, cut two consecutive letters from it, and paste a word from the right-hand column in the empty space you just created so that a new word appears. For example, if the word in the left-hand column is CAVIAR, and the word LEND appears in the right-hand column, you could drop the VI in CAVIAR and replace it with LEND to spell CALENDAR. You may cut any letters that are next to each other, including the first two or the last two, so you might drop the BR from BRIO and replace it with STUD to make STUDIO. Or you might cut…

These nine puzzles feature a unique blend of logic and art. The numbers are all you need to determine which squares should be filled in to form a picture. Here’s how it’s done: The numbers outside each row and column tell you how many groups of black squares there are in that line and, in order, how many consecutive black squares there are in each group. For example, 4 5 9 2 tells you that there will be four groups that will contain, in order, 4, 5, 9, and 2 consecutive black squares. The fact that the numbers are separated tells you that there is at least one empty square between them. (There may also be empty squares at the ends of lines.) The trick is to figure out how…

In this variety cryptic crossword, your mission is to locate subs—substitutes, that is. Sixteen clues contain one incorrect letter. Substitute the correct letter, always forming a new word but not necessarily maintaining surface sense. The incorrect letters, in clue order, spell out your reward for a successful sub hunt. ANSWERS, PAGE 80 ACROSS 1 A side of fries in a tub is a lot (5) 4 Opponent Father called out for blunder (4,3) 10 Tiny particles containing 50 ions (6) 12 Greenish-blue elements in silica quartz (4) 13 Unfinished race interrupted by a common ankle injury (6) 14 Alexis truly displays love (5) 15 Pawn joint (4) 16 Reject current work in the publishing industry (4) 17 Search Tiger’s novel for point of tale (4,8) 18 Win bet, blowing off…

Change each group of 10 words below into a “family” of different words (words or proper names that have something in common) by dropping one letter from each word and then rearranging the remaining letters. For example, given the entries HAUNT, HAIRDO, and ADVANCE, you could drop the N from HAUNT to get UTAH, drop the R from HAIRDO for IDAHO, and drop the C from ADVANCE to get NEVADA, all in the category “U.S. states.” Can you reunite each family by determining the category for each and unscrambling the 10 entries? Answers include one two-word phrase. As a hint, a list of the four categories appears on page 71. ANSWERS, PAGE 72 FAMILY ONE FAMILY THREE FAMILY TWO FAMILY FOUR…

EASY CLUES ACROSS 1 Molded anew 9 Prolific Baroque Ger. composer: 3 wds. 15 Lard, suet, or blubber: 2 wds. 24 Follow, as a principle: 2 wds. 25 Spending of money 26 Common local anesthetic 27 Very large African rodent: 2 wds. 28 Fight Club actor Norton 29 State of furious rampage, slangily: 2 wds. 30 In jeopardy: 2 wds. 31 Big brass instrument 33 Soap opera, e.g. 35 ___ de corps 36 Lock openers 37 Sister of Olga and Masha in Chekhov’s Three Sisters 39 Water flow stopper 40 Sneaky 42 Title for a king 43 Day before Tue. 45 Kills, as pain 47 Polite request starter 50 Neither’s partner 51 Fuming mad: 3 wds. 55 Outlines prepared for teaching: 2 wds. 58 ___-Siberian Orchestra 60 Coke and Pepsi: 2…

ANSWERS COVER We found 9 mistakes. If you find any others, please let us know at games@kappapublishing.com! FRONT Person on sidewalk is using a hoverboard, which did not exist in 1970. TikTok logo shown on building; TikTok did not exist in 1970. Issue date is wrong. There is a piece of fruit on top of the antenna on the tower. Person on left is mopping sidewalk. BACK The E in the GAMES logo is backward. There is a drone in the sky; drones did not exist in 1970. There is a Cybertruck on the road; Cybertrucks did not exist in 1970. Neither GAMES WORLD OF PUZZLES nor GAMES existed in 1970.…