#1 Sudokus

Genre: Sudoku Puzzle

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in #1 Anagrams Sudokus Bundle, along with #1 Anagrams. It is also included in #1 Crosswords Sudokus Bundle, along with #1 Crosswords. In addition to that, all three above games are included in #1 Pastime Bundle.)

#1 Sudokus is a Sudoku Puzzle game released on Nintendo Switch in 2021. Now, by this point, I think I’ve been pretty clear where I stand regarding Sudoku games on Nintendo Switch – there are some halfway decent ones, but none have been especially good. This is particularly disappointing because the 3DS had multiple Sudoku games I would consider good, but these games on Nintendo Switch seem to keep missing the mark for one reason or another. So a game claiming to be “#1” wouldn’t even have too tough a challenge living up to that claim. So… does this game manage it?

The presentation certainly doesn’t. #1 Sudokus uses some pretty loud imagery in the borders of its puzzles, with bright, jarring colors that animate distractingly while you’re trying to focus, and your cursor leaves behind a multicolored trail that’s also really distracting, and can briefly make it difficult to track where your cursor is. In addition, this game uses music that I can only assume is fair use – I’ve heard the same music in the Travel Mosaics series.

What about the gameplay? Well, this game does at least get some things right. In the game’s “story” mode (which features no story of any kind), there are 243 puzzles, which isn’t bad for for $4. There’s also “random” and “daily” puzzles, but it’s unclear if this is just selecting from one of those 243 I previously mentioned.

The controls work well enough, albeit a bit sluggish, and the game even supports touchscreen, the lack of which is one of my common complaints for these games on the Nintendo Switch.

Unfortunately, there are some pretty major problems, too. There’s very little in the way of options, no tutorial (just some written instructions), the game doesn’t show your time until you’ve completed a puzzle, and this game basically forces players to play with any conceivable assist feature turned on. Notations are automatically cleared when they’re no longer possible, and the game doesn’t even warn you when you make a mistake – it won’t let you make a mistake in the first place. As a result, after filling a puzzle with notes, the rest feels like the puzzle solving itself for you.

Because of these flaws, #1 Sudokus is not the best Sudoku game on Nintendo Switch, even with that being a pretty low bar. It’s not one of the best. It’s not even a halfway-decent Sudoku game. At best this is a sub-par Sudoku game. Even with the disappointing offerings in this genre on Nintendo Switch, you still have better alternatives.

tl;dr – #1 Sudokus is a Sudoku Puzzle game that may claim to be #1, offering 243 puzzles for $4 and including a few nice features like optional touchscreen controls. However, ultimately this game is not even a contender for best Sudoku game on the platform. With distracting visuals, lacking options, and gameplay that often feels like the game is solving the puzzles for you, this Sudoku game is simply a disappointment.

Grade: C-

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