Ultimate Puzzle Games: Sudoku Edition for Nintendo DS Reviews & Ratings by IGN

At this point, if you don't know what Sudoku is you haven't been paying attention. There have been numerous releases on the Nintendo DS thanks to the popularity of the puzzle books and its appearance in daily newspapers, as well as the fact that it's a public domain concept - anyone can make a Sudoku game without worry of owing royalties to a trademark holder. Even though the concept is cut and dried, it's still possible to screw up a virtual Sudoku game, as plenty of developers have proven on the DS. Telegames' take on the puzzler, Ultimate Puzzle Game: Sudoku Edition may be one of the more simplistic ones out there; its simplicity is what makes this Sudoku game one of the better ones of the DS bunch.''''Sudoku: a grid of 9 squares by 9 squares, and the task is to simply fill in the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 without duplicating in the same row, column and designated sector. It's a basic idea that's incredibly addictive once you understand how things work.''''While we wait for the long-in-development Ultimate Card Games and Ultimate Board Games (two DS titles that were announced well before the release of the DS system), Telegames brings us a quickie using its "Ultimate" branding. Ultimate Puzzle Games: Sudoku Edition is just a cut-and-dried sudoku experience. There are no set puzzles, only randomly generated ones, in standard 9x9 as well as 8x8, 6x6 and 4x4 formats. You can do all the standard stuff, including the ability to fill in tiny notes for future reference. It's not an interface that uses handwriting recognition, instead using a more simplistic "Click the number, click the square" control scheme. It works, it's just not as fancy as some of the other Sudoku games out there. The lack of set puzzles does remove a sense of accomplishment from the design, since you don't really have a list to check off after you've completed challenges, but the tradeoff of having a near infinite amount of puzzles to solve is pretty nice.''''There are two elements that really sell this version over the other ones. One, it has a Sudoku solving algorithm if you want to see the solution from a newspaper challenge. Two, you can give the game to anyone via the Download Play option in its entirety. Oh, there's a bit of a sacrifice, like no audio soundtrack and no custom backgrounds…but that's the only limitation. Having this ability means that you can immediately take part in the design's multiplayer competitive and cooperative elements.

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