Puzzle Websites
Crazy 4 Jigsaws
http://www.crazy4jigsaws.com
Grade: B
Date reviewed: 10/05/07
Beautiful and fun pictures, from honeybees to doughnuts, from billiard balls to sunflowers. A wide variety of cuts, from 12 "classic" pieces to 127 hexagons to 48 pieces cut in the shapes of the contiguous United States. A timer and leaderboard to let you see how you rate against other solvers. These are but a few of the things offered for free at this neat interactive jigsaw puzzle site.
Want more? Sign up and become a member. You do have to submit an email address, but you don't have to receive any emails if you don't want to. Then, you can upload your own pictures and play with them or send them to friends, and you can compete for fabulous prizes such as $50 puzzle gift certificates. Want even more? Unfortunately, for more useful features, such as the ability to save puzzles in progress or allow rotated pieces for a greater challenge, you'd have to pay $5.99 a month, which seems odd given that the site has both a sponsor and Google Adwords (which, by the way, look as though they're part of the navigation - be careful what you click on!).
These minor issues aside, the interface is fast and intuitive, the pictures are both eye-catching and challenging, and the ability to set the difficulty of the challenge lets you decide at the start whether you want to just spend 5 minutes over your coffee break or a full hour over lunch trying to piece that cute little kitten back together again.
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