Dr. Sudoku Preview

Sudoku sort of came out of nowhere, disguised as a math-driven puzzle game. But soon positive word of mouth spread like wildfire, and now millions of people are hooked on the addictive number puzzle. At this point, the people that still haven’t heard the word “Sudoku” are in the minority.

As I mentioned before, Sudoku seems like a math puzzle at first glance. Once you learn how to play, you realize it has nothing to do with math; all you need to know how to do is count to nine. You are given a 9x9 square which is divided into 3x3 blocks. The objective is to fill in the blank squares with the missing numbers to have each row, column, and 3x3 square contain the numbers 1-9 without any repeating numbers.

Up until now people got their Sudoku fix through either the newspaper or Sudoku books, but now Gameboy Advance and DS owners can get their fix on the go. Dr. Sudoku contains one thousand puzzles written by the leading Sudoku puzzle developers of Japan, Skynet. The puzzles range from very easy to very hard, with 200 puzzles per difficulty, so every level of player is able to enjoy Dr. Sudoku for hours.

If Dr. Sudoku is your first voyage into the game, there’s a great starting tutorial for beginners. It explains to you the rules, and then walks you through your first puzzle until completion. Not only that, but as you work on puzzles you can ask the game to draw lines from each number to show you where it’s missing on the board.

Portability and a helping hand aren’t the only advantages of Dr. Sudoku; there’s a built-in memo system. Pressing the L button allows you to set a small number in each corner, reminding you which numbers are possible in that square. You can leave them there to try a certain combination, and if it doesn’t work out you know right where you left off. Erasing them is as easy as pressing the B button.

For the true hardcore Sudoku fans, Dr. Sudoku even has a puzzle editor mode. Now you can make those insane Sudoku puzzles you’ve only dreamed of. It will also give you a little help by telling you if the puzzle is even possible to solve.

Sudoku fans and beginners alike, grab your Gameboy Advance, Micro, or DS and get ready for Dr. Sudoku.