Everyone has a morning routine, even if it consists of snoozing your alarm for an hour (or more). Personally, my mornings are fueled by an impatient hunger for the New York Times minigames. There’s nothing like a puzzle to kick your sleep-fuzzy brain into gear. I know I’m not alone in this–the New York Times games section keeps relationships alive and brings people together. My friends and family send our various daily wins and losses to each other in group chats with names like “Wordle Warriors” and “Puzzle Masters.” You get the picture. I’ve never felt nerdier in my life than I do now, typing this. Anyway.
For anyone who isn’t already part of the NYT minigame cult, let these words be the sign you’re looking for. They will improve your quality of life, for free. Seriously, it’s the little things. Winter quarter at the UW is pretty much just one rainy day after another and we could all use a little side project.
Here’s a guide, albeit biased by my favoritism, to the four best New York Times minigames.
#4: Spelling Bee
I only play Spelling Bee when I’m still antsy after beating the other puzzles in my daily regimen. In this game, you make as many words as you can out of the seven letters in the hexagon, but there’s a catch – you have to use the center letter for every word. Sometimes the NYT gods choose mercy, and half of the given letters are vowels; other times, you’re stuck with the back end of the alphabet. Once you’ve submitted a certain number of words, a leaderboard screen ranks you into a category between “Beginner” and “Genius” (I’ve never been able to claw my way up from “Great”). To sum up, this minigame is a probationary member of the inner circle. The following three are what experts consider to be the holy trinity of the Times.
#3: Wordle
Everyone knows Wordle; she had her 15 minutes of fame in the height of quarantine. One scene of And Just Like That (the notoriously woke Sex and the City remake) even gives the minigame a shoutout, showing an elegantly aged Carrie Bradshaw ruminating over her third attempt. I think the hype is justified: this puzzle is tried and true. I used to joke that Wordle was my wife (that was before I had a girlfriend; now Wordle is both of our wives). I like to start with whatever five-letter word first comes to mind, so I can claim I’m psychic if any of the letters are a match. Anyway, a day without Wordle is no day at all. Just as the sun always rises, the Wordle always…words.
#2: Mini Crossword
The New York Times mini crossword is a vexing yet impossibly gratifying little brain snack. You need a subscription to access the big-girl version, but the mini is better anyway because it’s teeny-tiny-adorable and the prompts are easier and it only takes a few minutes max. You can even use the auto-check feature to see if your answers are on point, although it’ll definitely slow you down by a few precious seconds (although in my group chats, we consider that cheating – use it wisely).
#1: Connections
Connections is a minigame for seasoned puzzlers trying to fill a void. I say that with a vulnerability reserved for my most sacred self-care traditions. I can’t really explain how or why Connections generates so much serotonin; maybe because, on a day when the puzzle is especially brain-melting, solving it feels like winning a Nobel Prize (or as close to it as I’m ever going to get). In case you’ve never heard of it, Connections is a matching game: the player has to match twelve tiles into four groups of four related words/phrases. According to the rules, “Each group is assigned a color, which will be revealed as you solve.” The yellow group is most straightforward, purple is trickiest, and green and blue are more middle-of-the-road. I remember one particularly cruel purple grouping categorized by the “shape of the top halves of Greek letters.” Each daily puzzle snags your intellect with confusing crossovers between the groups, but I won’t spoil the adrenaline rush for you beginners out there. Go find out for yourself!
Happy gaming :)