IPHONE GAME REVIEW

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Big Bang Sudoku

Or is it more of a mild pop?

by Spanner Spencer

Although it's plain to see from the 'games' section of the App Store, not many people realise the original design brief for the iPhone was an electronic sudoku player. The guys at Apple did such a great job with the technical designs, someone said, "Hey! Let's add a telephone and music player and stuff!" and thus the iPhone was born.

This primary function of Apple's nine-digit puzzle player has been well and truly fulfilled, we're sure you'll agree, so Big Bang Sudoku has a lot of competition. Indeed, some of that competition arrived before the Sun God first winked into virtual existence, and even though Big Bang Sudoku can't be accused of being expensive, it's undeniably more costly than the plethora of free sudoku games queuing up for space on our iPhone screens.

There are currently no fewer than 30 versions of the number-placement puzzle currently adorning the iSudoku's online Sudoku Store, so even the most amazing version is going to be met with a due sense of exhaustion and dread (Blackadder, series 4, episode 1 - ed). But at Pocket Gamer we endeavour to make our reviews as comprehensive as possible, so here we go again (groan)...

Big Bang Sudoku displays a grid of 9x9 squares, divided up into blocks of 3x3 squares. The objective (in case you've been living on Mars, in a cave, with your fingers in your ears and a brown paper bag over your head) is to place the numbers one to nine in each row, column and block without repeating any in their respective arrangements. These are standard sudoku rules.

Therefore, we can say without any rancour that there's nothing in terms of gameplay that makes Big Bang Sudoku stand out from the 29 other versions on the App Store. That's not a criticism, but a straightforward fact. So the real question is, what has Freeverse done to make this one more alluring than the glut of competitors?

Essentially it's a case of visuals. Big Bang is indubitably one of the better looking sudoku games available, and at least puts the system's gaming capabilities to aesthetic, if not practical, use. A smiling, manga-esque Sun God offers up feckless wisdom before each game, while a pleasing cosmos rotates dreamily in the background during play. The presentation is delightful, and there's a couple of decent features like a timer, a 'note' function (allowing you to scribble notes in the corner of a box until you're sure which number goes in it), a difficulty setting and a stats counter.

One issue with the game's operation is the ease with which you can overwrite a previously placed number. Rather than selecting the square, then the digit you want to place in it, you choose the number first. Pressing a square - regardless of what was in it beforehand - enters the selected number, making it incredibly easy to overwrite a square thanks to the iPhone's hyper-sensitive touchscreen.

There are nine free sudoku games at the App Store, and although Big Bang comes up trumps among this overabundance of number puzzlers, and definitely doesn't break the bank even if you do decide to pay it, it would've been far better to see the terrific presentation put to more original use.

What else can we say? Yes, it's a good sudoku game, but getting excited about it is difficult even for number nerds like us.

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