Board Games Special Review: Sudoku
How many times can you do the same thing without it getting old? How many versions of the same game can you develop without running in circles, figuratively speaking?
I have a confession to make. The first time I went into BGames, I did it to check out Sudoku puzzles. Heck, the first time I went to a game site I did so in search for Sudokus! I’ll admit it, I’m a huge geek like that. But what is there not to love? It is fun, smart and fresh, you will never solve the same puzzle!
So yes, the first time I accessed the board games section, I looked it up. Five different games, five! The excitement was great, until it dawned on me: what do you need five different Sudoku games for? I mean, I was pretty sure one could cover all possible bases in only one game: different levels, different puzzles, sound, hints, etc. Can you actually develop five *different* Sudoku games? It turns out, that is no easy feat.
I started trying out Sudoku Generator. The name intrigued me. Why would I want to generate a puzzle? I just want to solve them! But once I tried it, I remembered all the newspaper-puzzle-induced headaches I have experienced, and the feature seemed justified enough. Of course you could also play regular Sudoku; only one level.
Click to play Sudoku Generator
Sudoku 13 seemed the next step. I expected something a bit more traditional, like a three level game, when music hit me: the Macarena! Still, only one level. In addition, some woman (Macarena, presumably) kept telling me that she was not trying to do my job, or something of the sort. Wait, what?
Sudoku 5 came after that. Macarena and a nicer outlay where the only improvements from SGenerator to S13, so I was anxious for something a bit more radical (say, again, at least three levels of difficulty?). Well, that didn’t happen this time either. The outlay was different, but the music was the same. Improvements included volume control and a different way to set numbers in the grid, which were nice, but I think having at least another level of difficulty would have been nicer.
By the time I reached Sudoku II, I just wanted silence. Honestly, I clicked on the game expecting it to be pretty much the same as its predecessors. Lucky me, at least the outlay was really, really different, with an Eastern vibe to it. Only one level, still, but at least you could ask for hints. Just in case, you know.
Sudoku Online was the last game on the list. Frankly, I had almost written it off at the beginning, thinking it might be too basic. Boy was I wrong. Not only did it have 3 levels of difficulty, it also included 6 different types of puzzles (from 4×4 to 16×16). All possible bases, only one game. Amazing.
Next time, I won’t be as quick to judge a book by its cover – or a game by its outlay.
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