Next Week on XBLA: Get Your Crossword Puzzle On

Microsoft has announced next week’s lone Xbox Live Arcade release (provided they don’t have any E3 secrets in store), and it’s going to be getting wildly different reactions: Coffeetime Crosswords. The game includes over 150 puzzles and a 2-player co-op mode over Xbox Live, which actually sounds like a really cool, fun way to play. 800 MS points ($10) is the price, which is beginning to feel like the standard price for every Arcade release lately.

I know I said the exact same thing before trying Buku Sudoku (which I ended up really enjoying), but I’m not really sure that I want to do crosswords on my television. Playing co-op over Xbox Live might make me reconsider, but I wouldn’t want to embarrass myself with how bad I am at crosswords in front of my friends or even random Live members. Looking at the screen above, it just occurred to me how inconvenient it would be to play this game, having to scroll through the letters of the alphabet constantly. Hopefully the chatpad/Messenger kit is supported so that you can type in answers without any fuss.

Speaking of Buku Sudoku, the game will be getting a free puzzle pack next Wednesday, with a grand total of 1,200 new puzzles. Very nice to see the developer support the game with new puzzles, although I can’t imagine anyone has made it through the gigantic number of puzzles that were released. And if someone has, then all I can say is, “Wow.”