NYT Connections today — my hints and answers for Sunday, January 12 (game #581)

Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need clues.

What should you do once you’ve finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I’ve also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc’s Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #581) – today’s words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today’s NYT Connections words are…

COMETS
INVENTION
COIN TOSS
DEFENDER
COURT
ASTEROIDS
FAIRY TALE
DRESS COAT
FICTION
ROMANCE
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG
CENTIPEDE
CHARM
FANTASY
BREAKOUT
PURSUE

NYT Connections today (game #581) – hint #1 – group hints

What are some clues for today’s NYT Connections groups?

YELLOW: All made up
GREEN: Dating 
BLUE: Video classics
PURPLE: Flipside

Need more clues?

We’re firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today’s NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #581) – hint #2 – group answers

What are the answers for today’s NYT Connections groups?

YELLOW: FABRICATION 
GREEN: WOO 
BLUE: CLASSIC ATARI GAMES 
PURPLE: THINGS FEATURING TAILS 

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #581) – the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today’s Connections, game #581, are…

YELLOW: FABRICATION FAIRY TALE, FANTASY, FICTION, INVENTION
GREEN: WOO CHARM, COURT, PURSUE, ROMANCE
BLUE: CLASSIC ATARI GAMES ASTEROIDS, BREAKOUT, CENTIPEDE, DEFENDER
PURPLE: THINGS FEATURING TAILS COIN TOSS, COMETS, DRESS COAT, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

My rating: Hard
My score: Fail

I started today’s Connections completely baffled and unable to see any links at all before writing every word down and noticing – after a brief thought that we were looking for book genres – the words that made up FABRICATION and WOO.

Blue and Purple defeated me. Games are a blindspot for me. If I enjoy a game I get locked into it for years – Tetris, Sim City, Balatro – playing absolutely nothing else until a new game takes over, or as was the case with a dinner party game called RSVP I played every day on my phone, accidentally delete and then find out it is no no longer available. I realize this is a bit odd and it’s left me completely ignorant of everything else. But even if I was aware of the video game canon of the late 20th century I would have definitely included SONIC THE HEDGEHOG as an Atari game (it’s Sega), instead of the THINGS FEATURING TAILS category.

After Googling “does Sonic The Hedgehog have a tail?” (I’m not the first to do this) I eventually discovered that Tails is the name of a character within the Sonic The Hedgehog universe – and yes Sonic does have a tail. Every day’s a school day.

Yesterday’s NYT Connections answers (Saturday, 11 January, game #580)

YELLOW: DISPLAY OF ROWS AND COLUMNS ARRAY, GRID, MATRIX, TABLE
GREEN: THINGS TO DO AT A WORK EVENT CIRCULATE, CONVERSE, MINGLE, NETWORK
BLUE: OLYMPIC EVENTS SINCE 2000 BREAKING, SURFING, TAEKWONDO, TRAMPOLINE
PURPLE: -_COURT FOOD, KANGAROO, SUPREME, TENNIS

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don’t technically need to solve the final one, as you’ll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What’s more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It’s a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.

It’s playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.