Zenduko

Zenduko

Single number shenanigans

Zenduko as you would expect from its name is based on the well known Sudoku puzzles. For those of you that have been living in a box for the past few years here is a brief history lesson.

In 1979 American, Howards Garns, created a puzzle based on the numbers 1 to 9 positioned in 9 3x3 grids each row, column and box could contain the numbers 1 to 9 only once, see fig 1 because I am not going into any more detail. Garns named his new puzzle "number place" and had it published by Dell Publishing. It then took a further 10 year before it was picked up in Japan by Nikoli Publishing who renamed the puzzle "Sudoku" meaning single number. Now 21 years later Sudoku has become an international hit, books, newspapers etc are all publishing a large array of Sudoku puzzles so it was only a matter of time before variations of it hit the PSP.

Zenduko takes the standard suduko puzzle and replaces numbers with 9 images which is fine as in principle its just a prettier sudoku game. Then Zen quest adds an opponent. This is where things go a little wrong for me. If you complete a row, column, box or a single set of images (ie 9 hearts) you send your opponent an attack and visa versa. These attacks can take the shape of unrolling a banner with the L1 and R1 buttons or revolving the analogue stick to open doors and on and on. If you make a mistake then you send your adversary a few clues this continues until either of you completes the grid.

I am not quite sure why you would take a mental puzzle and merge it with dexterous battle type game as the constant interruptions actually deter from the fun of Sudoku. Luckily there is a standard version of sudoku bundled with Zenduko that offers 5 levels of difficulty as well as timed challenges. As a straight sudoku game this is nicely made and well worth the asking price so a good buy for any budding puzzlers.

6.5 out of 10