For the few people in the world unfamiliar with the game of sudoku, there are only two objectives: you must arrange the numbers 1 through 9 in tiled squares while also arranging them in horizontal and vertical lines. All of this may sound confusing, but Buku Sudoku explains the rules of the game much better then we ever can. Sudoku may first and foremost be a game logic, but it is still very easy to pick up. Indeed, Buku Sudoku's tutorials make the entire learning process very easy on the brain.
Buku Sudoku easily teaches players the rules of the game.
Conventional sudoku games have 9 vertical and horizontal lines, but in Buku Sudoku, players can either have 6, 8, 9 or 12 lines on their board. You can also choose the game's difficulty level, ensuring you aren't thrown in the deep end. Buku Sudoku is very simple to control – the left analogue stick moves the cursor around the interface and the right stick is used for scrolling through numbers. Though we sometimes found the setup a little twitchy, on the whole the controls weren't too bad.
When playing the game, there is the option of writing down numbers in the sudoku grid with the 'pencil'. The upside of using the pencil is that answers may be removed later if you find a mistake. Buku Sudoku also has a few options for helping out players when they get into strife. One feature displays simple errors, another tells you if the wrong number has been inserted, and finally, there's an option for showing which remaining numbers are available to be inputted into a tile. These features are rather handy, but they still made us feel as though we were cheating sometimes. Nonetheless, any of the 'helpers' may be turned on or off, so you don't have be puppy-walked through the entire game if you don't want to.
Sudoku matches have the option of being timed, but after a while they still become quite repetitive. Games can be saved at the halfway point, and once you beat a sudoku grid you are awarded with a final score based on your performance. But as far as the solo side of things go, there's not much else to be done.
Players can change the background to their liking.
Multiplayer modes include co-op, duel and team battle, and allow for a maximum of four players. When going head-to-head with another player, you are tasked with removing numbers that are yet been locked into place on your opponent's grid. In co-op, you can team up with a friend to solve a sudoku puzzle. The person who inputs the most numbers in co-op mode is awarded the highest score at the end.
Visually, Buku Sudoku is quite basic. The background theme may be modified, but for the most part, the game's design is focused mostly on functionality. There aren't any shiny animations or drawings, but that doesn't really matter to a title such as this. Most importantly, we had no issues navigating the main interface. Buku Sudoku's soundtrack is also straightforward. The simple in-game music is good for solving puzzles, but is does eventually get a little annoying.
Coming it at 47 MB, Buku Sudoku is fairly small download. The puzzle-solving title is designed well, and has a good tutorial system for introducing players to rules of sudoku. The in-game help and difficulty system ensure that you won't being throwing your controller at the screen in frustration, but after a few goes at Buku Sudoku, there isn't much to come back to. Multiplayer modes provide a further distraction, but only die-hard fans of sudoku will get enough life out of Buku Sudoku to justify its price.
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