Customer Review(s)
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Me: Let the Games begin! Audience: Oh no! Not that tired old line!
Comment: In my elementary school gifted program we read Games. In the walk-in closet with the oil pastels, clay, toothpicks and other supplies were hundreds of back copies that I borrowed on rotation. I still love Games every bit as much today, but I can still smell the old classroom when I read it, so I imagine I'm a bit biased.
What I can tell you is that every issue is strangely timeless. Although there are lots of traditional games involved - crostics and the like, there are so many different kinds of puzzles - trivia and history mixed with deduction, linguistic puzzlers, and, it seems, just an endless variety.
My favorites have always included hidden contests - which I often can't find - but it's just amazing that they were there and I missed them. The people who solve them must be MI6 agents!
My absolute favorite are the fake ads. When I was ten I posted the roach hotel ad on my wall - it was a luxury hotel for roaches a la flea circus. I had to ask my mom what a real roach hotel was. One of the greatest things Games provides is this living culture of laughter and fun. When you're a regular reader you really feel a part of a larger community. I thought it was amazing that people produce this magazine for a living, and assumed that was childish naivete. Meanwhile, the older I get, the more I admire them. After all - I'm an accountant.
Customer Rating: Summary: Enhance your mental agility, with Games Magazine
Comment: I've been puzzling with Games since it was first published. Some of the changes have been good, some disappointing (to me, because a favorite may have been deleted), but this magazine has something for every level of puzzler.
Crosswords, Cryptic and Double Crostics are my particular favorites, and then I move on to others. The highest level of difficulty in any type of puzzle will challenge even the most nimble mind.
Other puzzles get my attention as well, and those I choose to skip will likely be tackled by other members of the family.
The easiest levels allow a person to get an easy start, build confidence and then move on up the ladder of challenging mind-benders.
The contests are interesting, but usually quite difficult for average solvers.
Time-consuming is an appropriate adjective for this collection, though the more you solve, the faster you get at finishing. Puzzlers already know that one may drop the current teaser at any moment, and return in five minutes, days or weeks to pick up with nothing lost -- and only the enjoyment delayed a bit.
Always a treat, and something for any level of puzzle solver.
