You probably won't be surprised to hear no-one was anxious to review this title. I believe it was b|0-0|n who ran away screaming in fear and also the rest of the editors didn't seem to want to sacrifice themselves. What a difference with the situation when Gears of War came in and when the knives were all already sharpened and when the lobbying was already going on strong way in advance. Also I didn't really see much joy in a cartridge filled with intellectual torture until I suddenly started to see reviewing this game as my moral duty. Why wouldn't I do it? With Brain Training I also did some Sudoku and in the end it was a pleasant experience. So, here we go.

You almost have to have been living in a hermetically closed atom bunker if you don't know anything about the Sudoku hype that's been raging along lately. Everyone has seen the little number puzzles by now and some may even have tried it themselves. If you're not trend-sensitive and the words jo-jo and flippo don't mean a thing, let me explain the principle:



That's it, that's all there is to do in Sudoku Master. You can let your brain go on about 400 puzzles and, to make things a bit more exciting, you have to solve the puzzles as fast as possible. That way you earn stars that, when collected enough of them, grant access to brand new bonus puzzles! I can already tell you that you really have to love these things if you want to purchase this game.

There are two control mechanisms that both use the touch screen. First is to write the numbers in the squares, like in Brain Training, with the disadvanage that the software doesn't always recognise your writing or wrongly interpretes it. Personally I'm more fond of the second way where you enter the numbers by simply clicking on them.

The decor of this all is pretty sober and boring. The background consists out of some scrolling question marks and you can choose from three different songs to accompany that. Pretty dull although it never starts to bother, and that's already something.

Is next to the touch screen control anything else that differs from a paper Sudoku? Yes, developer Hudson has integrated some help mechanisms in the game to make it a bit easier. If you've filled in a certain number a couple of times (f.i. 5) then by double-clicking you can mark every five that's already filled in. This way it's easier to spot where that number still needs to be filled out. Also there's a practise mode where errors are immediately shown.

Hardcore Sudoku masters can choose from three difficulty degrees so there's something for everyone although I would have preferred to see some extra challenges. There are so-called level-test puzzles that you need to solve within a certain time limit, but that's it. No online modes, no crazy chaos sudoku's, just classic puzzling on your own. What it does, it does good, eventhough it's very little. I miss a form of competition and am already finished with the Japanese game. My girlfriend on the other hand (yes, you read that correctly, not all editors have a poster of some gay guy hanging above their bed) still plays half an hour of SM every day.