First I have to say, I HATE SUDOKU! And why, I hear you cry. Because you could almost have it beat and then realize that you have a duplicate number somewhere and it all completely unravels. Okay I hope this little outburst doesn’t have any bearing on the review. In fact Pure Sudoku is perfect, even though I’m angry at the game, I’m not angry at the program. Pure Sudoku is pretty nice, of course it is just a game of Sudoku. However the visuals are decent. And it is easy to play.
Okay according to Wikipedia Sudoku is a logic-based combinatorial number-placement puzzle. Number puzzles similar to this were available in 19th century newspapers. Eventually it got transformed into what it was today. It was introduced in Japan in ‘84 which gave it its Japanese sounding name Sudoku. If you really want a history I suggest you read the Wikipedia entry on it, and then search through the net, and maybe your local Library.
Pure Sudoku is a computer version of it by Mark Klocek or as he would like people to put it – Pure Sudoku – the visually refreshing, free Sudoku game with enough puzzles for a life time. And it definitely does. Something like 20,000 different puzzles, autosave, 43 backgrounds which change with each game, 4 difficulty settings, (I’ve only played it on very easy and still haven’t been able to beat a single puzzle), and an option to display duplicate numbers.
In Sudoku you have a grid of 9×9 squares, with each having a small 3×3 region. The object is to fill each box with the numbers 1 through 9 and only do it once. Each row, column, and region must contain only one instance of each number. With Pure Sudoku it’s easy, you have 9 number buttons, and a delete button on the left hand side of the screen. Simply click a number and a square. Some numbers are in a dark yellow, these are ones the game puts in and they can’t be changed. Anything else you can change, either with undo or delete, or simply placing another number in the box. The bright yellow numbers are numbers you have entered in, and the red numbers are duplicates.
On the bottom there are several options, Undo, Restart, Save Game, Load Game, Save Image, Redo, Check it, Solve, Hint, and Save & Exit. Check it, Save Game, Load Game, and Hint buttons are only available in the Deluxe version. There’s also a feature called a “Note” and simply means that if you right click an empty square it will put down a small version of the number that’s currently selected, this doesn’t solve anything, it just simply displays a few small numbers. The graphics are pretty much functional except for the background that changes whenever you start a new game. There’s only a few sounds when you click squares and start a new game, other than that nothing auditory.
Final Analysis: Serious the game makes you tear your hair out because you have to totally backtrack until you find out where you screwed up at, however be that as it may, Sudoku is actually rather calming because there’s no timer and nothing telling you you have to hurry up. But the calming effect will only last until you’re almost done with the particular puzzle. In any case it’s nice there’s something easy to use like Pure Sudoku otherwise I’d be throwing my computer out the window :-) I recommend it to any number puzzle, logic puzzle, crossword, and Sudoku fan out there.
Name: Pure Sudoku
Developer: Mark Klocek
Price: $5.99 for the Deluxe version
Where you can get it: Pure Sudoku, the webpage.
Tags: Casual, Pure Sudoku, Puzzle, Sudoku
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