The best April Fools’ day joke this year is the Connections puzzle

polygon.com:

If you’re looking for a solid 10/10 April Fools’ Day goof, might I suggest playing The New York Times Connectionspuzzle today?

Connections is a word association game where players start with a grid of 16 words. In this daily puzzle, players find the common thread between four words and discover four different groupings of words, each with its own uniting theme. Easy to learn, hard to parse, this particular game has garnered a reputation online for being difficult and sometimes having somewhat obtuse solutions. Then, on Monday, the editors took the word game in a surprising direction by substituting its usual array of works with emojis.

It’s a whimsical and visual twist on a beloved game. Some online hyped it up as the “CRAZIEST CONNECTIONS EVER,” but not everyone is thrilled with the antics. Players quickly took to social media platforms like X to share their criticisms on the switch-up. One user on X wrote, “what the nyt has done to connections for april fools day is evil and potentially deserves jail time.” Although some comments seemed a bit… aggressive… it at least seems to be done in good a gesture of puzzle-loving fun. Another person on X wrote, “nyt connections editor I am in your walls.” So if you’re an Connections editor, an exorcism might be in order to protect yourself from all the bad vibes.

Polygon reached out to a representative of The New York Times to ask about the special puzzle. When asked about what inspired the unique spin, Everdeen Mason, the editorial director for New York Times Games said that the team encourages the puzzle makers to get creative with the game.

“Connections, like all New York Times Games, are human made and we encourage the puzzle constructors and editors to take creative swings.” Mason wrote in an email, “This makes our puzzles more fun and prevents monotony. We test every puzzle before publication and do take solver feedback into account when we’re experimenting with new formats and styles of puzzles. We’re always glad