Sudoku – iPhone App Review

Sudoku (Free)

REVIEW- "Sudoku truly is a ‘Mighty Mighty Good Game'"

Mighty Mighty Good Games Sudoku (free) is a free app designed to make the game of Sudoku portable and pencil-less. Sudoku is a popular puzzle featuring squares that must be filled in with numbers 1-9. The app itself does not have directions on how to play the game, but the developer's website does.

The board of Sudoku (free) is easy to navigate. A tap highlights one of the boxes on the board and then a tap of one of the numbers at the bottom of the screen fills the box in. Users can select "notes" to fill in boxes with several small numbers in order to keep track of possibilities for that box. This feature is a must for the harder puzzles. The game automatically disables the numbers once they have been used one per 9-box square. This option is useful to stop mistakes from happening.

The automatic off feature, called "Smart Buttons" can be disabled in the options menu. Other options include a timer, use of multiple notes, showing incorrect answers and "smart notes". The last two options are nice for beginners, but make the game far too easy for an experienced player. If a user chooses, they can have the game mark their answers in red if they are incorrect. "Smart notes" is a button that can be clicked and all available answers for each box will be filled in as small notes. Beginner players can also click "Hint" and have a selected box filled in the correct answer, or if no box is selected, a random box filled in with a correct answer.

For the more advanced player, the "hard" and "expert" settings provide enough of a challenge without forcing the user to rely on guessing. The app keeps track of the fastest time puzzles were solved in each difficulty setting, making setting new records a challenge. The timer can be paused with the push of a button, if the app is exited or if the iPhone/iPod is turned off. Games can also be saved this way.

In addition to ease of navigation and customizable options, there four color schemes to choose from allowing users can select one that looks best to them. Should an entirely red screen not work for someone, there is always brown. Also, there are not any distracting graphics or animations in this app - the puzzle is the focus.

The only downside to this app is that the free version only offers 40 puzzles, 10 in each skill level. Users have to upgrade to the full version ($2.99) to have access to 500 puzzles.

- Melissa S.
© 2009, All rights reserved. AppShouter LLC

For more iPhone app reviews, please visit iPhone app