Customer Reviews

Ultimate Puzzle Games Sudoku Edition

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Sudoku title for the Nintendo DS. I've owned a couple of the other games available for the DS and this one is simply the best and easiest to use. My major complaint about other versions was having to use the control pad to get to the box you wanted to place a number in. In the Ultimate Puzzle Games edition, you tap the number and just tap the boxes you want that number to be placed in...simple. You truly get the feel of the game as if you were playing on paper with a pencil.

Speaking of pencils...you can make pencil marks, erase, or undo the last move made. There is also a set time to beat but it does not end the game should you go over the time limit, it's just a goal. A graph up top keeps track of how many times each number is used and in a way can guide you as to which number to try and fill in first.

I've only played on the easy setting so far to get the hang of the game play itself. I would rate easy as and equivalent of medium in the puzzle books. I don't think there is the fear of running out of games as it's supposed to generate new ones automatically.

I haven't tried any of the other grids available as I just love the original premise of the game. I bought this game two weeks ago and haven't stopped playing it since...a great addition to your game library :-)

My wife and I have been playing the Ultimate Puzzle Games Sudoku game for the DS for a few months now. We both like to play at the Hard difficulty setting. At the Extreme difficulty setting, I can't solve some of the puzzles logically, even though I've scoured the Internet for sudoku tips. After several bad experiences, I'm inclined to think that at least some of these Extreme puzzles aren't really fair, in the sense that they don't have solutions that can be found without guessing.
What makes this game so much more fun than the sudoku in Brain Age 2 is 1) you don't have to run a gauntlet of annoying nonsense to get started with the sudoku game, 2) you can very quickly enter small numbers into a bunch of boxes by simply tapping each box in succession (once you've touched the two appropriate keys to the left of the screen) and 3) you can just as easily remove small numbers from a bunch of boxes by tapping each one (once you've touched the three appropriate keys to the left of the screen). Since you're going to need to use small numbers to solve puzzles at the Hard level, having an efficient method for adding and removing these numbers makes the game more enjoyable.
My main reservation about this game is that, as mentioned above, at least some of the Extreme puzzles seem to be impossible to solve logically. I wish I knew more about sudoku puzzle design, but it seems to me that a good sudoku puzzle must be a product of a human mind, rather than something generated by a computer. Since these puzzles are supposedly generated randomly by the software, that may account for the appearance of unsolvable puzzles at the Extreme setting.
Addendum:
After writing this review, I've learned a little more about solving Extreme puzzles. For one thing, I've found that even my local newspaper prints some level 4 puzzles that cannot be solved using the techniques I learned on-line. The newspaper provides a link to a web site, [...], which explains most of the techniques that I previously learned, and - when these techniques don't work - actually recommends guessing to solve more difficult puzzles! I didn't know that it was OK to guess. However, even though it's possible to solve puzzles by guessing, I don't think it's fun to play that way, so I'm sticking to the Hard difficulty setting with this game.
Incidentally, another nice feature of this game is that it allows you to enter a sudoku game you might find in a book or newspaper and solve it using the DS machine, which is easier than writing and erasing small numbers on paper.

Good interface for entering your numbers and allowing you to make notes for possible solutions. If you like Sudoku and have a DS then this is a good value for what you get. Unlimited games too. It generates new grids. Brain Age's Sudoku doesn't have that. Enjoy.

This is my 4th Sudoku game for the DS. I actually bought it for a relative but had the chance to try it myself a few times.

GOOD FEATURES
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- Has a Built in Soduku solver. If you come across a newspaper sudoku puzzle that you want the answer to, enter it here and it will solve it. However, you can't actually play the sudoku puzzle that you enntered.

- Unlimited sodoku puzzles which are generated by the program.


BAD FEATURES
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- This has a really ugly interface. The best I've seen for the DS is still in Brain Age and Brain Age 2. The screen is not easy to read. The software uses an ugly font that will slow you down. Some of the buttons confused my relative, an older casual gamer.

- The optional wallpapers/backgrounds are ugly and distracting.

- As mentioned earlier, the sodoku puzzles that you spend several minutes entering can't be played. The program will solve them for you but you can't play it. Why? This is bizarre. It would have been great if you could enter a sudoku puzzle from the newspaper and then take advantage of the option to alert you if you make an error. But nope, go find a pen to solve the newspaper sudoku puzzle instead.

The Ultimate Puzzle Games - Sudoku Edition is the best Sudoku software I have tried. It has many choices for puzzles: the Classic 9 x 9 grid with Easy, Medium, Hard and Extreme levels of difficulty.

It offers also the Eight 8 x 8 or Mini 6 x 6 grid with Easy and Medium levels. Has also a Junior grid which is a 4 x 4 with an Easy level. It offers from the very basic, beginner level to the extreme hard puzzles.

If you get interrupted and cannot finish the game, YOU CAN SAVE IT if for later by pressing the START button on the DS console. A Menu opens offering a Game sub-menu with choices for Restart Puzzle, Solve Puzzle or Quit. Next is the Options sub-menu with the choices for SAVE, Reset Best Time, Music, ERROR HIGHLIGHT, Background and How to Play.

Besides this, when playing the game you have on the screen icons that allow you to pencil-in or erase candidates, erase entries, undo last move or redo last move.

I have played the Sudokus that come with the BRAIN AGE games and prefer the ones from the Ultimate Puzzle Games Sudoku Edition. The BRAIN AGE software frequently has trouble recognizing the numbers I am trying to pencil-in or enter, showing a 9 when I am trying to enter a 4, a 1 instead of a 7, and so on. It is quite annoying. With the Ultimate Puzzle Games Sudoku Edition I DON'T HAVE THIS PROBLEM, the numbers are tapped in, they are not "written" by hand.

Also, the BRAIN AGE Sudokus do not offer the different kinds of Sudoku puzzles the Ultimate Puzzles Sudoku Edition offers, nor do they have the unlimited number of puzzles this software can create.

The Ultimate Puzzle Games Sudoku Edition software is the one I prefer and I highly recommend it as the best.

I have purchased a couple of games,but I find this one to be totally useless.
Who wants to play 8 squares ? and it is just too difficult to select the number from the side panel.
I much prefer the BrainAge Sudoku.
I am presently looking for a Sudku ONLY game like Sudoku Classic

This Sudoku game is one of the best I've seen. I Sudoku on-line and in books that I've purchased and also a handheld version and I also have a version on my PC and this is really a good one. You can put the little pencil notations with ease and erase with ease. I also love that if you really get stuck that you can cheat and hit the "?" button and go to a square and it will solve just that square for you. I use it on some of the medium ones. I haven't tried the difficult level yet. Another good feature is that you can enter any puzzle from anywhere and solve it on the DS. I recommend this game to anyone who loves Sudoku.

I guess if you like to be timed to play a game....race against the clock then you will enjoy it. But for me, I want to relax and take my time. If you don't finish it in the time that is allowed it quits. I would not purchase this game again based on this.

This is enjoyable and so much easier/quicker than pencil and paper. Back lit so playable in a dark room. It lets you know when you're, possibly, making an error then you can back up and look for the correct move or ask the game to show you. If things get to be too much of a mess you can start the game over. The game can also be saved, like when you're falling asleep playing it after bed time, and finished later, like when you're awake. Well worth the money!

If you already like sudoku puzzles, you will enjoy this game. If you don't like sudoku, then why are you buying this? The game menu is easy to navigate and the controls make sense. This game is just straight puzzling, no weird RPG story built around it or feeble attempts at storylines, just the puzzles. I also really like that it tells you how many of each number are on the board already/how many there are left--it speeds things along nicely.