Kakuro Magic

Genre: Sudoku-style Puzzle

Players: 1

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Review:

Kakuro Magic is a Sudoku-style Puzzle game that kinda’ combines elements from Sudoku and Picross-style Puzzles. Like Picross, players are given information at the top and left of each column and row detailing what should be in that column or row, and like in Sudoku, players must place numbers throughout the puzzle without repeating the same number in a row or column. The resulting gameplay, while reminiscent of those two types of games, is actually fairly distinct and stands on its own as something different and new (well, sorta’ new – kakuro puzzles have actually been a thing in Japanese newspapers for decades now). This game includes 96 puzzles, separated by difficulty into four difficulty levels.

The presentation here is minimalist, very clean and appealing, with color-coded backgrounds for each of the four difficulty levels, and with a calm, New Agey-music playing in the background that’s really nice and works well for this sort of puzzle game. Pretty classy all-around.

As for the gameplay itself, solving these puzzles hits the same sort of deductive reasoning as sudoku puzzles do, with players trying to work out where to plunk numbers into the puzzle so that the sums will all add up appropriately, and negating numbers that won’t work in a given space. It’s not quite as compelling as a typical Sudoku puzzle is, unfortunately – I just didn’t feel it ‘click” with me like sudoku does. However, it’s not bad, either.

The control scheme here works really well, with players selecting numbers out of a pop-up radial menu. I wish the average Sudoku game controlled as well as this game did.

If I had to point to one flaw this game has, it’s that the “hints” you can place down while logic-ing out a puzzle are frustratingly faint in coloring and don’t really stand out, making it much harder to see them, especially if you’re trying to take in the screen as a whole. The lack of touchscreen controls here is also disappointing, as this game seems like it would be ideal for it.

In the end, Kakuro Magic is a solid puzzle game that’s not quite on par with sudoku, but this release makes up for that somewhat with a classy presentation. It’s just a shame that the “hints” aren’t easier to see and the game lacks touchscreen support. However, puzzle fans may still find this game to their liking.

tl;dr – Kakuro Magic is a Puzzle game that combines elements of Sudoku and Picross. While it’s not quite as compelling as either of those types of puzzles, this game makes up for that somewhat with a fantastic presentation. It’s just a shame a few small flaws mar an otherwise excellent package. Still worth a look for fans of Puzzle games.

Grade: C+

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