Dr. Sudoku
Ages: Everyone

It was only a matter of time before Sudoku made it to the handhelds. In this case the GBA. While the GBA is thought of mostly as a kid's platform, it makes a nice compact source for playing the game -- if you can pry it away from your eight-year old.

For those of you who haven't tried it yet, it is a number game comprising of a minor grid of 3x3 squares set in a major grid of 3x3 squares. The puzzle is to place numbers from 1 to 9 in the squares without duplicating the numbers. No math, just visual logic. Complexity is achieved by increasing the size of the puzzle or giving you fewer starting numbers. The game is great for those short breaks, particularly so since you can save your games in process. The game allows you to input your own game, or a game from a newspaper and solve it.

Dr. Sudoku includes a tutorial and help mode. In this case help is achieved by the drawing of lines vertically and horizontally to indicate which squares will not work. It's a good scheme and works well on the small screen -- the numbers were clear and easy to read.

Reviewed by: Editor - 08/06