Fads, crazes, phenomenons, there’s always something going on in the world today, and everyone’s eventually a part of it. You’ve got your Beanie Babies, your Furbies, Tamagotchis, the list goes on. However, there seems to be a new craze sweeping the nation, even if it is for a brief moment: Sudoku. Sudoku is a puzzle game based on numbers and grids, giving you a 9x9 grid cut into nine smaller squares, with nine smaller squares in each of those squares. From here, you must fill in each row and column using the numbers one through nine so that they appear in each row and column only once. It’s really difficult to explain with just text, the only way to learn is by checking it out yourself. To do this, you can simply scope it out online, where you’ll find various free versions floating on the net, or go pick up a book from the local supermarket. But being gamers, we want what’s best for us, so we’ll stop at the nearest electronics store and check out the latest releases for the various handhelds out there now. One of these titles is Dr. Sudoku, an obvious cash-in with the latest craze going on, serving pretty much no purpose other than to give you your fill of Sudoku on the go.
After checking out the tutorial, Dr. Sudoku offers exactly 1000 built-in puzzles for you to solve, ranging from very easy to very hard. While it would seem easier to make a Sudoku game with touch screen features, using the GBA’s traditional controls work just fine. You’ll navigate across the grid with the directional pad, select which square you’d like to place a number, and choose it from the dialpad that appears on screen. Should you be unsure as to where to place a number, you also have the option of writing little notes in each of the square’s four corners, indicating where you might place it by tapping the L button, and erasing them with the B button.
Using the R button triggers the Help Mode, something that you’ll be referring to quite often. Help Mode allows you to display where a particular number is located, so they stand out, and with another press of a button, various red lines stream across the grid, intersecting one another to show where you can place a number without breaking the rules, allowing you to place the aforementioned footnotes in the available squares. Using this mode gradually allows you to cheat in a sense by using a method of elimination to decide which number to put, but for the beginner, it’s a godsend.
Obviously, graphics and music aren’t the strong points of a game based on Sudoku, offering a generic style and repetitive tunes that you would probably only find in an elevator, but at least they used bright colors. Along with the 1000 pre-made puzzles, Dr. Sudoku also offers an edit mode, allowing you to make your own Sudoku puzzles, or fill in one that you might have found in a book. This allows you to use the Dr. Sudoku help system to give you that much-needed nudge in the right direction when solving a puzzle that would have seemed unsolvable in the first place.
What it all boils down to is a $20 piece of software that has but one purpose, which is to give you a nice batch of Sudoku, and nothing more. It’s a rather nice deal, as most magazines found at the store offer not even close to half the amount at a quarter of the cost. But honestly, there’s so many other alternatives when it comes to Sudoku so it’s hard to pick just one game, but were you to choose, pick one with at least some touch screen support, as navigating with the directional pad is a very inconvienient way to play. So here’s how it works, if you happen to love this newfound craze, go ahead and pick up Dr. Sudoku if only to satisfy your needs, but once you solve all 1000 puzzles, there’s really nothing more to it.
