Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Resco Sudoku 2.31 mini review
Sudoku has been the rage for a while now and many different developers have given us their take of this popular numbers puzzle. After recently moving to a VGA device, I was on the lookout for a good playing version of this game that takes advantage of this higher resolution. Resco have kindly given me an opportunity to check out their v2.31 release and I am very impressed.
One thing that has struck me with all the different incarnations out there are the sheer number of options available in some titles. A lot of effort is put into tweaking every aspect of the game instead of just focusing on making it simple and intuitive to play. Resco thankfully have kept things relatively simple and straight forward while still offering sensible options to change. This is highlighted no better than being able to alternate between picking the number first and then tapping the cell you wish populate or picking the cell first and then the number. The interface is one of the most important things in a game like this and the ability to tailor this to your own preference is certainly welcomed.
Appearance can be tailored further by the selection of a number of well designed skins ranging from a paper look to something more futuristic. As well as changing the theme and appearance of the screen, these skins also change the digits themselves so you could be working with coloured symbols instead of the standard numbers.
There are six difficulty levels on offer and you can enter your own puzzles or copy one from a newspaper should the urge take you. Pencil marks can be left in possible locations to aide your progress and you can have the game check your progress to date notifying you of any errors which is where the Undo function could come in handy. You can also have the game solve the current puzzle for you which could be helpful for any finding the solution to any that you have copied from a newspaper. ;) There are full statistics on offer showing you best and average times and the number of solutions completed and your current game is automatically saved when exiting the game.
I have to say that this is a well designed and mature version of the game Sudoku and Resco have been very active in tweaking the game through the various releases in response to customer feedback which has brought the game to the excellent version we have today.
For more details and screenshots, please visit the Resco website.
One thing that has struck me with all the different incarnations out there are the sheer number of options available in some titles. A lot of effort is put into tweaking every aspect of the game instead of just focusing on making it simple and intuitive to play. Resco thankfully have kept things relatively simple and straight forward while still offering sensible options to change. This is highlighted no better than being able to alternate between picking the number first and then tapping the cell you wish populate or picking the cell first and then the number. The interface is one of the most important things in a game like this and the ability to tailor this to your own preference is certainly welcomed.
Appearance can be tailored further by the selection of a number of well designed skins ranging from a paper look to something more futuristic. As well as changing the theme and appearance of the screen, these skins also change the digits themselves so you could be working with coloured symbols instead of the standard numbers.
There are six difficulty levels on offer and you can enter your own puzzles or copy one from a newspaper should the urge take you. Pencil marks can be left in possible locations to aide your progress and you can have the game check your progress to date notifying you of any errors which is where the Undo function could come in handy. You can also have the game solve the current puzzle for you which could be helpful for any finding the solution to any that you have copied from a newspaper. ;) There are full statistics on offer showing you best and average times and the number of solutions completed and your current game is automatically saved when exiting the game.
I have to say that this is a well designed and mature version of the game Sudoku and Resco have been very active in tweaking the game through the various releases in response to customer feedback which has brought the game to the excellent version we have today.
For more details and screenshots, please visit the Resco website.
