Sudokool

Sudoku is a puzzle game which has swept the world by storm. This simple game has furrowed brows from Japan to New York to Australia to almost anywhere – and now Sudoku is coming to your computer screen.

The game, like most things people get addicted to, is very simple in concept but difficult in execution. The idea behind the game is this: There is a grid, 9 squares across and 9 squares down, this is split into nine sections of 3x3 grids, making nine squares in each of the smaller grids. You have to get each number from 1 through 9 in each of the 3x3 grids while at the same time getting only the numbers 1 through 9 in the vertical and horizontal rows. Trust me, it makes more sense when you play it.

This version is pretty good; it comes with three modes of play, easy, medium and hard each with 50 boards to play with. This should provide weeks of entertainment (or days, or even hours, depending on how hooked you get).

There is a “beginners” mode which highlights your mistakes in red and this is turned on by default. I think it’s kind of silly because you can just keep clicking till you get all blue ones, but it’s good as a learning tool, if you’re willing to treat it as such, so you can see why the number you’ve put there is possibly wrong. Then you can switch that mode off and get into the real game.

There is only one bug I noticed, and that is the timer only works for one game. It gets stuck and stays like that. It’s not too bad though, but it would be nice to time each individual game without having to restart the whole application. The other annoyance is having to actually click a button when you think you’ve finished instead of it automatically saying “congratulations”. But these two points aside, it’s a wholly solid Sudoku game and by far the best downloadable version I’ve seen.

Sudokool is a fun and challenging game for people who are interested in Sudoku, people who like puzzle games or someone who just wants a challenge for a while. In short, it should be enjoyed by pretty much anyone. This game is highly recommended.