What is it? A two-player, Scrabble-style word game from NYT Games
Who is it for? Word-game rivals who want cleaner online play
How much does it cost? Free with light ads; ad-free with an NYT Games subscription
What makes it special? A slick interface and coaching from Cross Bot
The New York Times isn’t content to have the most popular daily puzzle games in the world at its disposal. After Wordle, Spelling Bee, and the crosswords, last year it expanded into multiplayer for the first time – and it’s a familiar sight. Crossplay is pretty much a straight Scrabble clone, in the same way Words With Friends was a decade ago, and NYT is using its knack for slick, minimal puzzle games to take a crack at the classic.
I’m a good person to judge this one, having racked up hundreds of games on the official Hasbro Scrabble app thanks to a years-long rivalry with a friend. The official app is far from perfect – the full-screen ads after every turn are obnoxious and it’s prone to weird quirks like hijacking your audio. Crossplay, by contrast, feels neat and calm.
The gameplay is nothing new: use letter tiles to make words on a shared board, edging toward victory through a blend of anagram skills and placement strategy. But NYT isn’t afraid to tweak the formula. The board layout and scoring have been lightly rebalanced, with some letters worth more or less than you’d expect. (I was particularly pleased to see V given a points boost, with H rightly taken down a notch.) The bonus for using all your letters is smaller, there’s no first-turn bonus, and the endgame rules feel fairer and less punishing. Purists might balk at these changes, but in practice it levels the playing field – for me, these rules are superior to the official ones.
Now for the catch: the human factor. The app has been out for a little while now, but finding committed players is still a problem. It’s easy enough to find opponents, but harder to find ones who reliably take their turns – I have a graveyard of half-finished matches against people who simply vanished. Until NYT adds matchmaking that accounts for reliability as well as skill, the best experience is still playing friends you already know. Bots are a decent fallback if you want a quick game.
Presentation is classic NYT Games, from the colors to the clean layout. My one minor gripe is that the previously played word isn’t highlighted, so it’s not always obvious what just happened on the last turn. The app tracks your stats, letting you track performance over time, and there’s a neat post-game coach called Cross Bot who reviews your play to point out better moves you missed. Oddly, that analysis doesn’t show up for CPU matches, which is a shame.
Some players have reported freezes and bugs. We didn’t encounter any in testing, but your mileage may vary. There’s also no pass-and-play mode, and no option for 3- or 4-player matches. Oh, and just like in Spelling Bee, NYT’s dictionary has a few strange omissions – why can’t I play “squeezy,” for example?
Overall, Crossplay feels like NYT Games applying its usual polish to a classic. If you love Scrabble but hate the state of the official app, this is an excellent alternative – but until the player base fixes its commitment issues, you’re better off playing with friends.