Sudoku Mania Review

Sudoku is all the rage it seems among intellectual people these days, and even some less than intellectual people. As such, it was only a matter of time before Sudoku found its way into video games. The GBA has a couple Sudoku games, and they are becoming very common on the DS of late also. Sudoku on the DS began with the inclusion of one hundred Sudoku puzzles in Brain Age. A few months later, two companies answered the call of the Sudoku fanatics for a dedicated Sudoku game: Nintendo with Sudoku Gridmaster, and UFO Interactive with Sudoku Mania.

I have long been intrigued by the concept of Sudoku. However, until now, I have never managed to find a Sudoku game cheap enough for me to be willing to arouse my curiousity. Finally, I have found such a game, a copy of Sudoku Mania packaged with a copy of yet another game which I will review at some point in the future, both for $20. But you don’t care about how I came to possess the game. You care about whether it is a game which you should possess. Allow me to answer that question.

Graphically, Sudoku Mania is fairly simple. You have your choice of five backgrounds, each of which looks decent enough, but the board itself is a bit bland. That, however, is to be expected. Sudoku isn’t a game that easily gives itself over to fancy graphics. The numbers can be clearly seen against the board, and that is the most important thing graphically, so I have no major complaints.

In terms of sound, there really isn’t much. There’s music that plays when you’re working on a puzzle, but it’s always the same music and will get old fast because it isn’t that great of a piece. There are a few sound effects also, but they don’t really add much to the game. This is the type of game that you could just as easily play with the sound turned off, so I’d recommend listening to a CD or something while playing it instead of listening to the game itself.

In terms of gameplay, I suppose I should begin by explaining the concept of Sudoku. Sudoku is a game played on a nine by nine square board divided into nine three by three square sections. Given numbers one to nine in some of the small squares, your objective is to fill in the rest of the squares so that each row, each column, and each three by three square has all of the numbers one to nine represented with no duplication within any row, column, or small square. The concept is simple to understand, but difficult to actually do.

The game mechanic for number entry isn’t too bad, but it isn’t the quickest either. Essentially, you use the D-pad or the arrow keys on the bottom screen to move a red marker to the box you want to put a number in. Once you have selected the correct box, you tap the number you want to put in that box with the stylus on the touch screen. Should you make a mistake, you can select a box and hit a button to delete the errant number. This system doesn’t work too quickly, which can be somewhat annoying since the game keeps track of how long you take to solve a puzzle and saves the fastest times on each difficulty level. I should mention that the whole small number thing that most people do when trying to solve puzzles can’t be done in this game, which is a significant problem.

In terms of game options, there are plenty. There are three difficulty levels that you can choose from. You can choose to play with numbers or symbols. You can even choose to play with a normal nine by nine grid or play with a smaller four by four grid split into four two by two grids if you are new to Sudoku and want to learn the concept in an easier form. The difference between the difficulty levels is only in how many numbers you get when you begin, though, since the puzzles are randomly generated.

That, indeed, is this game’s primary advantage over Sudoku Gridmaster, its direct competitor, but it is also this game’s primary disadvantage over that one. The game has a random puzzle generator that creates puzzles on the spot for you. This creates the potential for nearly endless gameplay, and, when Sudoku Mania came out, such a thing was unprecedented on the DS. Therefore, UFO is to be given props for being the first to attempt it. However, the random puzzle generator in this game tends to be too predictable. It often puts numbers in numerical order, such as 4, 5, and 6 being right next to each other in order in a row. This sometimes lessens the difficulty of puzzles.

The game does have a hint button if you need to have a hint given to you, but the timer will add some time if you use it. In addition to all of this, there is also a two-player mode where two players alternate filling in numbers. This mode gives each player a time limit before play switches to the other player, and the player that enters the most numbers wins. This addition of a multiplayer mode is a nice touch and adds replay value to a game that could already potentially last a while.

What then is my conclusion? For when it came out, Sudoku Mania had the advantage of having the random puzzle generator, but, from what I understand, Sudoku Gridmaster won in almost every other category. Without having played them all, I have to assume that at least one of the other Sudoku games that has come out also has a random puzzle generator, and one that would work better than the one in this game. Still, if you are a Sudoku fan and you can find this game fairly cheap, it could very easily be worth your time. However, there are better games of this type available.