So when I first saw ClassicMoments’ article on the release of Sudoku Ball – Detective, it just looked like they strung three unrelated words together and called it a game. But after a few minutes of gameplay, I have to say I’m surprised. I was actually kind of getting into it! Think of this game as a combination of CLUE, Sudoku and a Rubix Sphere. Let’s take a look.

I’m not going to go too in depth with the story here because I wouldn’t want to spoil it for you (and because there really isn’t much to divulge anyway). But the basic premise is that Edward G. Bannister, an Oxford scholar and retired chief Superintendant of Scotland yard, is invited to a birthday party of an old friend, Jonathan Coleridge. Jonathan falls prey to what at first seems like a heart attack. But soon, Edward discovers that it may have been a carefully planned murder. Edward must now Sudoku his way to the truth!

So yeah, the storyline may not be the most gripping and riveting narrative ever written, but it does serve its purpose. It does add a progressive element to the whole game. Once the game begins, you are shown a small town map from which to select your next destination. Believe it or not, all of this actually does  give an objective and incentive to all the sudoku-ing.

Speaking of sudoku-ing, the actual Sudoku portion of the game has a few twists as well. First of all, as the name suggests, you solve sudoku puzzles on a 3-D ball. Each ball consists of six Sudoku puzzles. Each of the 3×3 squares in the corners of the puzzles overlap. It’s probably easier to just take a look at the screen shot below.

The Sudoku solving is woven into the storyline via several different scenarios, and each scenario provides an extra twist to the Sudoku solving. For example, during a Lock Pick scenario, your objective is to solve the middle number on the Sudoku Ball. You are given four lock picks, and each incorrect guess in the middle space results in the loss of a lock pick. On top of that, there is a time limit, and exceeding that limit also results in losing a lock pick. This game provides quite a departure from other sudoku games.

I’m no sudoku expert, but I definitely felt the difficulty level for this game was low. Whenever you fill a row, column or square with all of the correct numbers, you’re  notified with a little sound effect that the numbers you chose were correct. This feature makes it so there’s a lot less back tracking, and a lot more guessing. It might sound a bit like cheating, but I think its a great introduction into Sudoku.

The game also provides you with pure sudoku fun, and has a three other modes besides the story mode. If you’re in the mood for some non-story related good old sudoku ball, you can access a total of 90 distinct sudoku balls, divided into three difficulty levels, in Classic Mode. Maybe you want to relive the thrill of lock picking but don’t want to go through the story. No problem! You can plays up to 15 different sudoku balls from each scenario in Story Level mode. And of course, this game also provides you with more than enough of your standard 9×9 sudoku in Standard Sudoku.

All in all, this game is definitely not another Sudoku game. It adds another dimension to the Sudoku experience. However, due to the low difficulty level, this may not be for hardcore sudoku fans. And the story itself is not enough to keep non-sudoku fans interested. But for those who are looking for a new sudoku experience, or are thinking about giving suudoku a shot, this is a great place to start.

Our Score: 6.5 /10

A great place to start your Sudoku journey, though story doesn’t help much .

We’ve seen it all with Sudoku-related game ideas. At least we thought we did.
Now there’s going to be a game called 3D Sudoku Ball with a detective solving puzzles.

Playlogic released Sudoku Ball – Detective today for PC, DS and Wii. It features:

• Challenging story mode with 20 levels
• Three difficulty settings from beginner to expert
• Unique 3D Sudoku Ball feature for an entirely new puzzle experience
• 240 Sudoku puzzles and additional story puzzles

The player starts as a small town detective, solving murder mysteries. You can also visit the Sudoku Ball™ Detective website for more information. The game supports 6 languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Dutch.

Here’s a screenshot for the PC version:

And screenshots for the DS version:

3D Sudoku ball that solves murder mysteries… Clever.

Puzzle games. It seems like there are more and more puzzle games out these days, especially on handhelds like the PSP and the DS. And as they gain popularity, puzzle games become more and more sophisticated, with ever more innovative gameplay. But sometimes, you just want something familiar, and simple. The Challenge ME series from Oxygen Games definitely delivers that. Oh, man does it deliver that. This time around, we got to review two games, Challenge: Math Workout and Challenge ME: Brain Puzzles from Oxygen Games.

I’ll start this review chronologically, with Math Workout. The Math Workout has two types games, both of which supports up to three additional players wirelessly with one cartridge. The first game, called Hidden Logic, is a card game where you try to guess the numeric values of cards. There are two game modes within this game, vs Hidden Logic and Guess Hidden Logic. In vs Hidden Logic, you have to guess the numerical values of the other players’ cards. In Guess Hidden Logic, you have to guess the numerical values of the cards in front of you. There are several rules which help you “logically deduce” what cards your opponent has. I put logically deduce in quotation marks because a lot of the time, it really does feel like you are guessing, leaving login aside. Furthermore, in vs Hidden Logic, your oponent is the AI, and man is it relentless. They probably have about a 90%  chance of guessing the right answer. After several initial play-throughs, I felt like I was a kid again, complaining that the computer was cheating. But then again, winning over the AI does give a pretty sweet sense of accomplishment.

The second game type is called Formulate, and like the previous one, there are two game modes: Free Play and Challenge Me. The basic gameplay is the same for both gmae modes, where you randomly draw cards with a numeric value attached to a plus, minus, multiply, or divide. Using these cards, you take turns against your opponent rearranging them to make correct mathematical euations. Again, like Hidden Logic, the problem is that it seems like most of your work is based on guessing and luck, due to the random drawing of cards.

The biggest problem I had with all of these game modes is the fact that there aren’t any clear instructions on how to play the games. Based on the vague guidelines provided, I had to kind of feel my way through the game. After tripping over and hitting my shins a few times, I finally figured it out. On the plus side, there are plenty of puzzles to keep you busy. And that’s about it.  The graphics and sound are pretty flat and generic. Nothing really to talk about in this department. Though its pretty cool that 4 people can play wirelessly with one cartridge, it doesn’t seem that spectacular due to the fact that the game in its entirety feels like a minigame.

The second game, Brain Puzzles, like the Math Workout, is a simple game with two modes: Sudoku and Picture Logic. First of all, this game had the same problem the previous game: there aren’t any clear in-game instructions on how to play, especially for the picture logic! But putting that aside, those who’ve played Sudoku before will feel right at home. The rules are identical. Once you use the stylus to select a square, a number pad appears, allowing you to select a number to place in the square. A cool little feature in this game is the ablility to put possible answers in the four corners of individual boxes, allowing you to sort of take notes as you work your way through the puzzles.

Picture logic is another logic game where you have to use the numbers and colors displayed above and to the side of the box to create a picture. The numbers show how many tiles in that row or column are colored in. By combining the two sets of numbers, you can use logic to deduce which tiles are colored in. Seems simple enough, but once you get into it, it can be quite challenging, and sometimes frustrating.

The title provides two ways to enjoy these games: Puzzle and Instant Fun. As the name suggests, in Instant Fun, you can play both Sudoku and Picture Logic as single puzzles. There are two game modes under the Puzzle mode; Challenge Me and Fee Play Mode. In Challenge Me, the game tracks of your progress such as time and number of puzzles  solved, which then is used to give you a ranking. In Fee Play Mode, you can select a puzzle out of the 500 that the game provides, and the top 3 times are saved.

Like Math Workout, the presentation of this game is very simple, and seems more like a minigame than an actual title. However, this game does provide a solid “Logic” experience. Those looking for just a simple Sudoku/Picture Logic game will be pleased.  In fact, I didn’t really know how to play sudoku before this, but I actually enjoyed it very much, and was kind of addicted.

So, in conclusion, I say this: Math Workout can be fun for the first few challenges, and you can definitely achieve a great sense of accomplishment (thought it’s probably not based on skill) defeating the AI. But it also has a lot of room for improvement. I definitely recommend those who want a solid sudoku game to check out Brain Puzzles. Its clean, simple logical fun.

Challenge ME: Math Workout: 5.5 /10

Challenge ME: Brain Puzzles: 6 /10

Tutorial mode could have helped a lot,
but maybe that’s part of your brain challenge, right?