Introduction: It's funny how different crazes become in vogue and sweep across the nation. A few of these popular pursuits take it a step further and go global. One such activity was the filling of in of numbers in a grid of a grid of squares, yes you read right! If you've not guessed already this is what is now universally known as Sudoku.

GamePlay: If you've somehow managed to avoid this phenomenon so far, it usually involves a set of nine grids arranged in a square. The grids start with a few of the numbers completed although the majority are left blank. You can then use some simple rules and mental logic to work your way around the puzzle and fill in all the cells. Each of the grids can have the number one to nine in each of its cells just once. Additionally, each line that traverses three grids horizontally or vertically can also only have numbers one to nine just once.

The question here is how does the DS handle this game? Our obvious and popular reference point is the none-too-shabby implementation provided by Brain Training. The further challenge for the game is that, like handheld cross-word puzzles, they are also fighting against the simple Sudoku books that sell for a fraction of the price and offer similar features and portability.

The first decision of game like this is how to conceive the puzzles that are included. There are thousands of classic Sudoku puzzles that players test themselves against in the real world. However, the developer decided to opt for only randomly generated puzzles. Whilst this may have saved money licensing the more well known Sudoku puzzles, it has the double drawback of stopped players compare their times and providing any of the familiar starting points usually offered to new players. Obviously having generated puzzles does mean that there are an endless stream of Sudokus to challenge your skills, something that scores a few points over other handheld implementations and the hard copy books. This could have been better capitalised on if the puzzles generated were of a higher quality. As it stands, you soon get to know the sorts of number combinations that get generated and start to use that to help to solve puzzles much too quickly. The game becomes more one of second guessing the generation code rather than tackling the puzzles themselves. The games generated also all have a similar feel, rather than the hand-designed Sudokos which often have more personality about them. Admittedly it's all just numbers, but you would be surprised how involved you can get as you battle against a particularly cunning layout.

Control: Control wise, there is an odd lack of touch screen implementation. You only use the stylus to select a number. You have to use the D-Pad to select a particular grid and cell. It feels rather clunky next to the other touch-centric Sudoku games around, and is certainly a million miles away from getting a Touch Generations badge. Another omission is that there is no function to enable you to note possible numbers in each cell. This is a key strategy for Sudoku players and is usually provided for in electronic versions of the game.

Graphics: Graphically, the team have gone for style of content. The numbers themselves are over stylised and therefore hard to read at times. The grids and backgrounds are over crowded and don't really add anything to the game.

Sound & Music: Sounds and music are both included but are nothing particularly exciting. Although there are a few nice effects, these fail to lift the gameplay above average. Again where music has been shown to be so effective in setting the mood and ambience of puzzle games, here it is treated more as something that needs to be included because that's what people expect. A shame, as this represents another missed opportunity.

Dual Screen Use: The DS's dual screen seems to be treated more as a hindrance than an opportunity for novel gameplay mechanics. The second screen simply provides arbitrary visuals that are pretty much just filling up the space. Whereas other implementations of the game use this additional real-estate to enable the user to access advanced features such as noting which numbers are possibilities for a particular cell, Sudoku Maniacs keeps things simple. Whilst this will be less confusing for new players, the failure to use the second screen effectively really starts to grate as the number of games starts to stack up.

Final Comments: Overall, as you can probably tell this is a pretty dire rendition of Sudoku. One can only imagine that the developer knew it would still sell to people who hadn't read reviews or tried the game out first. It is a shame because there are a few sparks of imagination, such as the provision of a multiplayer mode, and the generated games. Unfortunately the implementation is not there to match the aspirations of the designers. In the end there are much better Sudoku games available for less money.

Pro: Generated Sudoku grids.
Con: Poor implementation at almost every level
Final Score: 2.8

Reviewed by: Douglas Andrews