The Sudoku ![[WikiPedia]](http://www.mikeyp.com/css/external.gif)
craze that has swept through Japan and England has finally caught traction in the US. If you haven't played it, Sudoku is a numerical puzzle consisting of a 9×9 grid. A little like a crossword puzzle, the goal is to fill each row with the numbers 1 through 9 (no duplicates), as well as fill 9 3×3 sub-grids with the numbers 1 through 9.
The best free online Sudoku I've found so far is syndicated on the San Jose Mercury News web site.
As fun as it is, I'm not sure why it's so popular. Once you figure out how to solve one Sudoku, you can solve any Sudoku. It took me about 3 puzzles to realize the solution pattern. I still play it occasionally to test my wits, even though I know I'll solve the puzzle in just a few minutes. I wonder if others are doing this too, which would explain its popularity.
What I find more interesting is how the puzzles are generated - a very clever game design mechanic that always provides just enough clues.
Try the fiendish-level puzzles at this site, Fiendish Sudoku:
I guarantee you won't solve any of them in just a few minutes. Some sudoku puzzles require quite advanced logic and deep analysis to be solved.
KristinW
www.sudokulinks.com
Thanks for the link, the Fiendish puzzles are indeed much harder to solve. It seems like the lack of clues in the Fiendish puzzles make them more difficult… and I would say a little less fun. But it's pretty neat that they reveal even more logic patterns for discovering the solutions.
It's amazing how bad the interfaces are of most online sudoku sites. In my opinion the best as far as interface goes is
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/crosswords/sudoku/easy.html
Even the hard level aren't too dificult, but after using that interface it's very frustrating using the other online games.
