PUZZLE #34: Squeezed in the Middle 2

PUZZLE #34

SQUEEZED IN THE MIDDLE 2

I'm going to be published in GAMES Magazine!

Yep, assuming they don't go under (which I highly doubt, considering they're the most popular/only variety puzzle magazine out there that accepts outside contributions), GAMES is going to publish three puzzles I made using my original format, "Squeezed in the Middle"! To celebrate, here's another "Squeezed in the Middle" for you guys to solve!

For this puzzle, you're going to sandwich together words (entered in the white rectangles) by surrounding it with a letter on each side, one at the beginning and one at the end, making a new word in the process. Once you're done, the extra letters you've added in the "crust" (the brown squares) will spell out a two-word phrase. In the example above, the words URN, RAT, and OVER become BURNT, IRATE, and GOVERN, and the letters in the brown squares, reading down, spell out BIG TEN. However, to make things trickier, the "Wholes" will be in no particular order, so it's up to you to figure out which one of the "Centers" it matches up with!

Once you've filled out everything, the letters in the brown squares, reading down, will spell out this week's FINAL ANSWER: the name of a classic puzzle video game.

CENTERS
1) "_____ to the Night" (Eve 6 song)
2) Defunct animation studio that did Inspector Gadget and Captain Planet
3) Partner of ready and willing
4) Snape's stick
5) Giant Japanese ogre-like monster
6) Wear a rut in the rug, say

WHOLES
* Actress Russell who played Flint "Sandman" Marko's wife
* Don't confuse the Wii U GamePad with this mobile computer!
* Its capital is Kigali
* King's proclamation
* Sissy who won an Oscar playing a Coal Miner's Daughter
* Type of Greek column with volutes

Once you think you know what the FINAL ANSWER is, send it to either redhead64@chartermi.net (the main email for my home computer) or itsredhead64@gmail.com (the main email for my tablet and whenever I'm not at home) and I'll put your name on a solvers list once I post the answers in about two weeks. You can also use those email addresses to give me some comments and feedback (or get a hint from me in exchange for a "hint star", more details for that are on the sidebar to the right) or send me the answer to last week's puzzle, if you haven't already figured it out (apparently, it's a difficult one, but at the same time, 8 people have already solved it, so...). If you have a printer and want to solve this puzzle on paper, just head below the break for a version you can print out!

ANSWERS: Double Chain Reaction 2

It's been thirteen days since I posted my puzzle celebrating both the series premiere of the new Chain Reaction and the midseason finale of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and considering the latter, I'm surprised at how many people have managed to solve it! You can see how many have done so below:

• Paolo Pasco ****
• YYW ****
• Eric Maddy ****
• Adam Weaver ****
• Lynn Sweeney ****
• My sister Alex ****
• Mom ***
• Giovanni Pagano ****
• Debbie Underwood ****
• Sam Levitin (no stars, but only because he sent me his answers a day late)

Now just head below the break for the answers, along with some pictures and solver comments!

PUZZLE #33: Pent Words 3

PUZZLE #33

PENT WORDS 3

Boy, it's been a while since I've made one of these, hasn't it? Considering that my last one was in February (I'm not counting the "Tet Words" variant I did in April), I think a new installment of "Pent Words" is well overdue! So let's dig in, shall we?

For this puzzle, you must divide the grid into pentominoes (they’re kinda like Tetris pieces, except they’re areas made up of five squares each) and put a letter in each cell. The rows, reading from left to right, will contain the words hinted at by the ACROSS clues. The letters in the pentominoes, reading left to right beginning with the top row, will form the words hinted at by the PENTOMINOES clues; these clues are presented in no particular order. (In the example above, the rows spell out CHINS, PARTY, and ANKLE, and the pentominoes spell out the words CHINA, STYLE, and PRANK.) Use the across answers to figure out where the pentominoes go. 

The FINAL ANSWER is a two-word phrase made up of the two unclued pentominoes.

ACROSS (Two answers per row)

1) Boast / Ghostly bulldog from Luigi's Mansion

2) Joss Whedon show (in)famously cancelled after one season / Yakko and Wakko's sister

3) _____ the Earth (Furry adventure game) / Mil. mailbox

4) Eurodance group whose debut album was Sex & Violins / Jai ____ (sport that appears in a lot of crosswords)

5) 1 vs. 100 host Bob / Hairstyling shop

6) Word following "Folk" or "Fairy" / Major Arcana cards

7) U2 song where Bono counts "one, two, three, fourteen" in Spanish / Tommy Pickles' dad in Rugrats

8) Team Fortress 2 character hidden beneath a gas mask / Towards the boat's back

9)  "I Alone" band / Exploding penguin from Disgaea, dood!

10) Repent / Mason-_____ line

PENTOMINOES (Five letters per answer)

* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER

* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* Myst sequel released in 1998
* Species of Sam the Muppet
* Goth girl who befriends Beetlejuice in his animated series
* Marlene from Penguins of Madagascar, for one
* Aristotle's teacher
* _____ White T's (emo band)
* Mad Magazine parody
* Murphy Brown's son

* Capital of Japan before Tokyo

* CBS's eye and NBC's peacock
* Nosed around
* Creator of the 2600, 5200, and 7800
* Miss Garson who won Best Actress for Mrs. Miniver
* The youngest of the Baudelaire children
* Sex and the City actress Cynthia
* Penny's pet dog in Inspector Gadget
* AXS TV's old name
* Star Trek: _____ Contact

Once you believe you've figured out the FINAL ANSWER, send it to either redhead64@chartermi.net (the main email for my home computer) or itsredhead64@gmail.com (the main email for my tablet and whenever I'm not at home) and I'll put your name on a solvers list once I post the answers in roughly two weeks. You can also use those email addresses to give me some comments and feedback (or get a hint from me in exchange for a "hint star", more details for that are on the sidebar to the right) or send me the answer to last week's puzzle (don't let the fact that ponies are involved deter you from solving it!). If you have a printer and want to solve this puzzle on paper, just head below the break for a version you can print out!

ANSWERS: Build-A-Pyramid

It's been thirteen days since I posted my "Build-A-Pyramid" puzzle, and I saw the number of solvers rise a bit thanks to Grant Fikes advertising it via Twitter! Here's the list of people who've solved it, by the way:

• Eric Maddy ****
• Grant Fikes ****
• Chad "Authorblues" Waters ****
• Adam Weaver ****
• Edderiofer He ****
• Lynn Sweeney **
• Mom (My sister Alex and her fiance Eric helped, too) **
• Joseph DeVincentis ****
• Tyler Hinman ****
• Debbie Underwood ***
• YYW ****
• Cayden C. ****
• Sam Levitin ****

Now just head below the break for the answers, along with plenty of solver comments!

PUZZLE #32: Double Chain Reaction 2

PUZZLE #32
DOUBLE CHAIN REACTION 2

Guess what GSN Original is coming back this Thursday? That's right, The Chase! Oh yeah, and Chain Reaction's coming back, too! To celebrate, I'm going to post a couple Chain Reaction puzzles that I've had in the back burner for quite a while now! Not only that, this puzzle also coincides with the recent mid-season finale of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic that aired a couple days ago, and you'll see why that's so important in a bit...

Below is a pair of word chains made up of six two-word phrases each (For example, the introduction to GSN's original version has a chain of WORD - GAME - BALL - ROOM - KEY - CHAIN - REACTION). I'll give out clues that lead to each two-word phrase, but to make things harder, all the clues for both chains are mixed up together and are in no particular order. The first and last words of each chain are partially hidden, but to make things slightly easier, The first letter of each of those words will be revealed, as well as their length.

The FINAL ANSWER is the name of two characters from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, one hidden in each chain.

• MYSTERY PONY #1
• MYSTERY PONY #2
• Ugly Betty actress who voiced Astrid in How to Train Your Dragon
• Guest vocalist in Wale's "Bad"
• Non-profit org. whose current president is Bob Aiken
• The (rather appropriate) voice of Anger from Inside Out
• Publisher of the Dead Island video game series
• His backing band was The News
• Giving baby some soft food via "choo-choo", say
• Hip-hop duo made up of Havoc and Prodigy
• Philosopher who gave his last name to a comic strip tiger
• Final track off of KISS's debut album

Once you think you know what the FINAL ANSWER is, send it to either redhead64@chartermi.net (the main email for my home computer) or itsredhead64@gmail.com (the main email for my tablet and whenever I'm not at home) and I'll put your name on a solvers list once I post the answers in about two weeks. You can also use those email addresses to give me some comments and feedback (or get a hint from me in exchange for a "hint star", more details for that are on the sidebar to the right) or send me the answer to last week's puzzle, if you haven't already solved it. If you have a printer and want to solve this puzzle on paper, just head below the break for a version you can print out!

ANSWERS: Charadagrams 2

It's been thirteen days since I've posted my second "Charadagrams" puzzle, so now it's time for me to reveal the answers! Before I do so, however, here are a list of people who have successfully solved it:

• Grant Fikes ****
• Adam Weaver ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Eric Maddy ****
• Mom ****
• Tyler Hinman ****
• Paolo Pasco ****
• YYW ****

Now just head below the break for the answers, along with some solver comments and pictures relevant to the puzzle's clues!

PUZZLE #31: Build-A-Pyramid

PUZZLE #31

BUILD-A-PYRAMID

A while ago, I had a puzzle called "Build-A-Pyramid" get accepted by Will Shortz's Wordplay (of course, this was before the magazine went under, but I digress). This week's puzzle, while not the exact same one that I sent to Wordplay, still has the same format, so for those wondering what this type of puzzle is, here you go!

Use all of the jumbled letters below to build a pyramid so that each word contains all the letters of the word above it plus one additional letter. A starting letter has already been set in the top square of the pyramid.

Once you've completely filled in everything, the bottom-most layer of the pyramid will reveal the FINAL ANSWER: an 8-letter movie title.

Once you believe you've figured out the FINAL ANSWER, send it to either redhead64@chartermi.net (the main email for my home computer) or itsredhead64@gmail.com (the main email for my tablet and whenever I'm not at home) and I'll put your name on a solvers list once I post the answers in roughly two weeks. You can also use those email addresses to give me some comments and feedback (or get a hint from me in exchange for a "hint star", more details for that are on the sidebar to the right) or send me the answer to last week's puzzle, if you haven't already solved it (but be careful, 'cuz it's a toughie!). If you have a printer and want to solve this puzzle on paper, just head below the break for a version you can print out!

ANSWERS: Section Six 2

Before I get to the answers for "Section Six 2", I've notice that the number of solvers for my last two puzzles have dipped a bit. Since I want as many people as possible to solve my puzzles (while ignoring the fact that those last couple puzzles may have been on the hard side), I'm going to ask anyone who's happening to be reading this a question: how do I get this blog to a wider audience? Right now, the only promotion I'm getting is from Grant Fikes' site, and I don't think one blog's going to be enough. I tend to make a lot of references to video games, Ponies, and other bits of pop/"nerd" culture, so maybe one of you can promote this blog somehow on a site or message board or something else that's into those sort of things? I dunno, but if you can think of anything to get more people on this site, just shoot me an email or comment to this blog post. In the meantime, here are the 7½ solvers of "Section Six 2" (don't worry, I'll explain where the fraction came from):

• Adam Weaver ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Grant Fikes ****
• Lynn Sweeney ***
• Eric Maddy ****
• Debbie Underwood (Mom helped with one of the clues, hence the ½) ****
• Paolo Pasco ****

Now head below the break for the answers, along with some solver comments and three videos relevant to this puzzle's clues.