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Carol Vorderman Sudoku

This handheld unit was one of two models available on the Character stand. I was sent the cheaper offering and although I made several requests for the other one as well it never materialised.

It is a maximum of 14x11x3cm and weights around 150grams with the required 3x ‘AAA’ batteries inserted. These are not included but this is stated prominently on the box.  The screen itself is 6x6cm with the four buttons, two sliders and two other objects used for controls mounted below the screen.

There are over 750 puzzles in three levels of difficulty. Highlight a blank square and move the up/down object on the left to toggle through the numbers 1-9 to select the one you think is correct. Move the other object in the shape of a ‘+’ to the next square you want to fill in. Should you wish you can press a solve button to show you what number goes into that square.

The stated price is £19.99 but as I said before they do another model with touch controls and a lot more puzzles for £29.99 to me – unseen – that would seem to be the better buy for anyone who really likes Sudoku.

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http://www.character-online.com/xq/ASP/ID.720/qx/i_product_page.htm

Sudoku Professional

Not something from Dream Toys but a later offering. This is a CD-ROM to run on a PC from Walkthrough. Stated as suitable for 3+, I certainly think that is rather optimistic as not many three years olds are interested in Sudoku.

It claims to have unlimited puzzle creation facilities, of course it can give hints and should you need them solutions. A total of eleven different difficulty levels and as little as twenty one exposed cell puzzles. You can of course do them against the clock.

Quite a nice interface but there are numerous PC Sudoku games. This one is stated to cost £9.99. See link below.

Sudoku 20’s

This is a paperback book published by the same company Walkthrough and it made up of 161 puzzles divided between moderate (62) difficult (52) and very difficult (24) extremely difficult (13) and finally super difficult (10). Appently the twenty or less exposed cells are revered by the Japanese.

When this book arrived I looked at all the Sudoku puzzles I could find and none had as few as twenty squares exposed, normally mid twenty’s and some as many as thirty or more. This is certainly for the person who flies through those in the daily papers. The stated price is £7.99. Should you want both the book and Sudoku Professional (above) you can buy them together from the link below for a saving of £2.98.

http://www.walkthroughpublications.co.uk

Carol Vorderman’s Sudoku

Another PC title this one (like the handheld earlier) is endorsed by Ms Countdown Carol Vorderman.

To install insert the CD into the PC and on a reasonably fast unit three minutes later you will be 480MB of hard disc down. There are four different classifications of puzzles, Easy, Medium, Difficult and Super Difficult.

Inside the DVD case it comes in is a booklet with Carol’s Top Five Sudoku Tips. However there are also video tutorials for the novice to teach you the logical way to solve the puzzles. There are stated to be over a million unique puzzles within the program. If you become stuck ‘Ask Carol’ and get the solution. It is also possible to print out puzzles and these use Adobe Acrobat to print out.

Once you are a real Sudoku addict then work through the various belts (similar to Judo) and end up with a black belt, then you just maybe good enough to challenge Carol and become a Sudoku master. Stated price is £14.99

http://uk.store.empireinteractive.com/default.aspx?MID=51E64386495D&SID=C1296BCF1A90 

Sudoku for Dummies

Surely a statement that does not apply to those who do Sudoku puzzles. However I have in front of me volume 2 (currently of 3) of Sudoku for Dummies. It is a 340 page book with 240 new puzzles it has four different levels. Easy, Tricky, Tough and Diabolical.

This book does not just feature the standard size 9x9 grid it has 220 of those but also 10 of the 16x16 grid these just make me feel like doing the ironing, also something I do not even want to contemplate working out 10 circular puzzles.

Stated price is £5.99 available from lots of bookshops or from www.dummies.com

Finally

If all these Sudoku items are not enough don’t forget to see the review of Infinite Sudoku from Focus Multimedia that was published on the 22/7/05, just search back to that date and read all about it.