Crazy Sudoku

Genre: Sudoku Puzzle

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local Alternating)

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Review:

Crazy Sudoku is a Sudoku Puzzle game released on the Nintendo DSi via the DSiWare service in 2010 and then grandfathered into the Nintendo 3DS eShop when that system was released. This game seems to be using procedurally-generated Sudoku puzzles, and there’s a creative approach to competitive multiplayer here. However, beyond that, there’s not really much “crazy” going on in this game

Quite the contrary, the presentation in Crazy Sudoku is, if anything, quite subdued. The puzzles are presented in a clean fashion, and while the game menus have a soundtrack that sounds like elevator music, the gameplay itself is completely silent save for the tics and taps generated by you entering in numbers.

For those who have yet to try their hand at Sudoku, the simple premise is that players are provided a grid divided into 3×3 fields, with each field further divided into 3×3 squares. The grid already has some numbers filled in, and players must fill in the rest of the grid while following these simple rules: each row and column must include the numbers 1-9 with none repeating, and each 3×3 field must also contain the numbers 1-9 with none repeating. Players solve this puzzle largely using a process of elimination – once you know what numbers can’t be in a square, you can narrow it down to what must be there.

As for the gameplay, Crazy Sudoku may be sorely lacking in “crazy”, but what’s here is well-crafted. Tap a button to toggle between adding notes and jotting in your solution, use the D-Pad to highlight a cel, then tap the number you want to add. Easy-peasy. Players can adjust the options somewhat, and there are even extra “jokers” that act as hint buttons.

However, the real joy here comes from the creative 2-Player competitive same-system alternating play. In this mode, two players are both working to solve the same puzzle, each taking 60-second turns to try to jot in as many correct cels as possible before being instructed to hand the game over to the other player. It’s a clever approach to multiplayer that makes this both competitive and cooperative at the same time. My only note here is that I wish you could enter notes in this mode like you can in the campaign (perhaps ensuring that only the player who entered notes can see those notes).

There’s only one other major complaint I have here, and that’s the fact that this game lacks any sort of tutorial to assist those just starting off in the world of Sudoku trying to learn.

However, while it’s easy to complain about flaws and missing content, for a game that’s only $2 on the eShop, Crazy Sudoku is a really good deal for any Nintendo 3DS owner who enjoys Sudoku Puzzles. It may not be as “crazy” as its title implies, and in fact the presentation may be a bit bland, but it’s a mechanically-sound Sudoku game with some good multiplayer, and that puts it ahead of many of the other Sudoku games on the Nintendo 3DS.

tl;dr – Crazy Sudoku is a version of the standard Sudoku Puzzle that has procedurally-generated puzzles and a surprisingly creative 2-player alternating Competitive mode. It’s not anywhere near as “crazy” as the title implies, and in fact the presentation here is pretty bland. But for $2 this is an excellent game of Sudoku.

Grade: B

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