Sudoku (Electronic Arts)
Posted 08/22/2008 at 1:59am
| by Susie Ochs

We shook the phone and the little red numbers appeared automagically. Now, how to make them go away?
It's expensive, yes. But it comes dressed up with pretty backgrounds! Disorienting animated menus! And chintzy music to set the Oriental atmosphere! (The huge and obvious drawback to that: You can't listen to your iPod music while you play.)
But as far as sudoku, it's a solid game. You can toggle options like error checking on or off. You can enter puzzles you've seen in the newspaper, and even cheat on them by letting the game solve them for you. Shake the phone to make the little annotation notes show up—sort of a cool touch.
The game starts with Easy, Medium, and Hard levels, and you earn points to unlock Very Hard and Insane levels. But all in all, we found the interface too frilly, and the iPod restriction a deal-breaker.
Newspaper mode is a nice touch. But we prefer Mighty Mighty Good Games' simpler, cheaper version of Sudoku for its clearer menus and controls.
Sudoku COMPANY: Electronic Arts Mobile
CONTACT: www.eamobile.com PRICE: $4.99
REQUIREMENTS: iPhone or iPod touch with 2.0 Software Update

Lots of eye candy. Five levels. Newspaper mode. Shake phone for automatic annotations.

Fades out your iPod music. Menu includes a link to buy more EA games.