Go! Sudoku and Go! Puzzle

“Go! Sudoku” and “Go! Puzzle”
Publisher: SCEE
ERP: £TBC

Sony’s knack for slick presentation really helps here, with otherwise humdrum puzzlers that certainly don’t require a supercomputer to run.

The ubiquitous PlayStation demands something equally omni-present as a casual offering, hence a tidy version of Sudoku to appease the masses. Over a thousand puzzles ranging in difficulty are quickly accessible in “Go! Sudoku”, playable in Solo Classic, Solo Arcade, or Multiplayer modes. Classic gives you a target time, but you’re free to exceed the limit without being penalised. Arcade mode challenges you to beat the clock, for those of you whom everything in life should be a trial. Multiplayer mode lets you compete online to solve puzzles faster than the other guy. The interface is simple to use, cycling through numbers using shoulder buttons before committing them to the board. You can drop place-holder numbers too if it helps. Of course Sudoku is something Sony easily can, and will, maintain with regular updates. Sitting in front of the telly on a rainy day, PS3 Sudoku could prove hard to ignore.

“Go! Puzzle” is a compendium of three ‘Tetris’ style games – block-based, and with a time limit to spur you on. Two of them are very good. The first is “Swizzle Blocks”, in which you rotate blocks of four coloured squares on their axis to complete larger areas of the same shade. To give things a bit of ‘character’ the little blocks have cute googly eyes, which is fair enough. However the jaunty music, which doesn’t change and is on constant repeat, drove us insane.

Next is “Aquatica”, which plays very similarly to Tetris but with rows of three coloured blobs (which we think are supposed to be mines). The rows descend horizontally, and can be flipped lengthways but not rotated to descend vertically. This ends up rather frustrating, so isn’t much fun despite the cheerful cartoon fish scooting around in the background. Possibly we’re missing something, but this one’s going on the backburner.

“Skyscraper”, last of all, could end up being the best of the bunch. A little spaceman dashes across rows of coloured blocks in order to demolish buildings from the ground up. It’s your task to make sure he tramples only the same coloured blocks while not getting himself trapped. It’s possible to ignore some of the blocks but you’ll forfeit a time bonus that helps you make it all the way to the top. Occasionally there’s a key trapped in one of routes, tempting you to clear the tricky path where it lies. If you’re successful you’ll unlock a new tower. Skyscraper is dead simple, but maddeningly addictive, and worth the download alone.

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