Filed under: Fun, Games, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Freeware
Time Waster of the Day: Sudoku
by Jordan Running Aug 17th 2005
I first heard about Sudoku awhile ago, but never really got into it until this week. But boy did I get into it. Sudoku is a logic puzzle in which you're presented with a grid of nine rows and nine columns. The object of the game is to fit the numbers 1 through 9 into the grid so that each number appears only once in each row, column, and 3x3 sub-grid. At the beginning of the game you're given many of the numbers and have to use deductive to figure out where the rest go. It's a very simple game—sort of a cross between minesweeper and the venerable crossword puzzle—but maddeningly addictive and, at the higher difficulty levels (i.e. fewer "given" numbers), a real mental exercise.
There are many sites where you can play Sudoku online, but I've found Miniclip's Flash Sudoku to be the best. It has three difficulty levels, the invaluable ability to record "guesses" (e.g when you know a cell must be a 3 or a 9, but you don't know which), and a new puzzle for each difficulty level every day.
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
