Less points, less puzzles, same difference?

Sudoku 50! For Beginners is, in essence, a scaled down, dramatically easier version of the recently released Sudoku 150! For Challengers. It seems a little odd that Hudson decided to release the more difficult game first and not release both titles together, but nevertheless Sudoku 50! For Beginners offers a decent amount of gameplay for a meagre 200 points. If you really are completely new to Sudoku and want to learn to play with some basic puzzles, this game may be just the title for you, but if you’ve played through even one Sudoku puzzle before this may be a little too easy.

The game has the same background menus and music as the previously released title, and again has the same in-game tutor to offer advice and provide tips for beating the 50 Sudoku puzzles on offer. The word that comes to mind to describe the aesthetics of this game would have to be pleasant: the visuals are far from breathtaking but at the same time are suitable to their purpose, and on the whole inoffensive.

Unlike Sudoku 150 there are only two modes of play: the puzzles themselves and a tutorial on how to play Sudoku. Once again the in-game tutorials are pretty thorough, and even for the absolute beginner learning to play shouldn’t be too hard at all. Though, to be honest, is Sudoku really that complicated of a puzzle anyway? The level of difficulty in the puzzles is, as the title would suggest, pretty basic, with many squares on each grid already filled in. As always the player can enter “temporary numbers” in order to make the puzzle easier to solve and so as not to confuse themselves.

With fifty puzzles available the game should offer a fair amount of gameplay if played at regular intervals: that is to say, one could pretty much finish the whole game in an hour or two if they sat down and went through each puzzle – this isn’t really the point of the game though. Sudoku! 50 For Beginners, like its bigger predecessor, is essentially the ideal game for travel or to pass a few idle minutes.

For 200 points Sudoku! 50 For Beginners is a pretty sound purchase: it has enough to keep the player occupied for a decent amount of time and really is a very good introduction to Sudoku. It does, however, seem quite odd that Hudson didn’t release this prior to the harder game, or rather released the game as one full title with 200 puzzles instead. If you’re a fan of Sudoku then perhaps the larger Sudoku! 150 For Challengers is for you. Even if you’re not a fan you may actually be getting more for your points by purchasing the larger game with triple the amount of puzzles. To be fair though, for 200 points there is a lot worse out there; namely the calculators and clocks.