I have played many sudoku games over the years, and this has been the best for me. The numbers have different colors, helping to spot patterns more easily. You still need to use good strategy, but this feature helps with focus. When jotting a note (hypothesis for a number), if I enter a number that is impossible (e.g. the number is already in that row or column) an audible and visual alert lets you know… especially helpful when I’m tired and not tracking well. When a number is complete (all nine are placed) that number dims… again making it easier to focus on what’s important, instead. As an extra bonus, there are 3 daily goals, adding a new challenge to the game. Bravo to the developers for such a fine game play.

This app makes some interesting design choices in the way it presents sudoku puzzles. I don’t see how the completed puzzle relates to the pixelated image you can sometimes earn upon solving the puzzle. The biggest negative I see of this particular app, is the fact that there’s a setting that allows you to turn off h automatic hints for potential moves. I have yet to turn this setting on, and it still gives you hints. All you need to do is highlight any empty space and it will make the remaining values in the 3x3 square in which you highlighted the space, stand out. Furthermore, the app calls you out if you make a mistake. If these aren’t hints, I don’t know what a hint is. It’s quite annoying actually. Furthermore, the daily challenges border on the ridiculous. Over and above ones like “place a 6 then an 8 two times" you’ll occasionally get a challenge that says something like "complete three columns back to back" whose definition of "back to back" is questionable at best. I got this challenge and played two puzzles by literally completing all nine columns left to right, and the meter never once went beyond a streak of 1. I simply can’t recommend this app to anyone over, say, the age of 8 when there are so many better sudoku apps out there. If you want a truly great sudoku app, look to the (non-Apple Arcade) one created by Conceptis Ltd.

I used to love this app and played it every day. Then at some point the developer decided to introduce “events” where you play a number of little mini-goals like “place all the 3s” or all the even numbers, etc. Not really my thing, but whatever, I’m sure some folk like it. What really killed it for me though is even if you’re playing a normal game (which I use as a semi-meditative mental reset), there’s now a constantly animated bright icon in the lower corner for whatever the current event is. No way to remove it, no way to disable it or turn off the animation, just there constantly shining and moving while trying to focus on the main game. I keep picking up the app again every few months hoping I can manage to ignore it, or that they’ve introduced a setting to turn it off, but so far no luck, and I end up dropping it again. I otherwise love the color coded numbers and the way they highlight selected numbers, rows & columns, etc. Maybe one day they’ll fix it and I can get my daily play back in again. In the mean time, it’s too cruel to my brain to keep letting it attack my attention span like that.

This is a colossal waste of time for any Sudoku player beyond the most elementary level. I am at level 322 and only now getting to puzzles the NYT would rate as Easy. And you have to complete four perfect games to prove you are worthy of advancing to another level. So I have spent much time doing over 1000 puzzles to get to a level that is modestly interesting but not in the least bit challenging. And there are these weird graphics and side games that give you points, but to what end is never explained. I think there’s probably 1000 levels and times a minimum of 4 complete games to go to a new level I won’t do it. and I won’t do 4 perfect games at all levels. I kept going until the chance to write a review came up again.. I am so done. Again, a colossal time sink with no end in sight. Do not start on this if you are a good Sudoku player. I think this penalizes you if you ask for a hint. At level 322 I’ve never asked for a hint and you’d have to be an idiot to ask for one for any of these puzzles so far. Again, I am done and signing off.