I hadn’t ever played sudoku before seeing this app. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked it and how almost intuitive this app made it. I advanced to the pro levels within a few days and then was stuck. I used their “improve” function which is used to learn techniques by difficulty and also practice them. One of the two cons of this app is that I don’t think it does a thorough enough job explaining the more difficult techniques. During the examples/practice, I’ll see an option that I think is correct and it simply says it’s not what they’re looking for. It doesn’t explain WHY it’s wrong or why the option they want is the only correct one. So a lot of times I feel like I get a technique, but in practice it only works 50-60% of the time, or I just don’t get it at all. The other con is that it feels like the levels have gotten stuck on one technique that I don’t get at all. Every single pro level I’ve played for the past week needs at least 1 y-wing (one puzzle needed 4 😭) I just wish there was more variation in the techniques needed to solve the harder puzzles. The previous difficulty level, “expert,” is too easy but “pro” is too difficult. So it’s definitely becoming less enjoyable to play because I can’t advance anymore.

I came here to complain about this because I’ve been struggling through a level 100 Pro skull game to get the achievement and just accidentally touched the stupid button and got a hint I didn’t want and now my hard work is ruined. Sometimes the other buttons act weird, I guess. Like sometimes you can cross out multiple numbers and sometimes it turns off after crossing out one. I’ve accidentally filled in a square instead of crossing out on arcade games for this reason and then have to undo. Otherwise it’s a great game. UPDATE May 29: I’ve been working on Pro Eternal run achievements. When I previously complained about the broken button logic, I didn’t even know what eternal mode was. Now instead of losing a single game because of the broken button logic, I can lose a whole 9-game streak and waste hours of my life! I’m on my third attempt now. Six games in, only one heart left, and not a single error that wasn’t caused by the game randomly deciding I wanted to fill a cell instead of crossing out. It’s maddening.On a happy note, I found the setting to require confirmation that I want a hint, so at least that isn’t an issue anymore (although moving the button would have made more sense from a UX/UI perspective).

Just to be upfront, I’ve used other sodoku apps before. I’ve mostly played using apps. What I don’t like with this is the confusing interface. Why THREE different tools just for the note function? Yes, I sat through the explanation, and it still only needs to be two ( a pencil and eraser function) or even ONE. Three just feels overboard, especially since it’s hard to differentiate between the two colors picked for the accent and regular. I don’t like CROSSING OUT the number notes for the ones I know I want to remove; as I said, I’d rather it just be an eraser function (the designer apparently took the pen and paper WAY to literally. As I saw in other reviews, if you prefer pen and paper, learn by doing those. There are features that are much better suited to an app)Edit: Okay, I think I found the themes, and it turns out there are about three different ones (it’s just the settings are a bit hard to find because the one with the themes is on the main menu which you can seem to access after selecting a mode without closing the app again… which seems a bit like poor app design. Though, again that could just be due to the colors because the color scheme for all three use ones that REALLY blend into each other in some way making NONE of them comfortable to use) I’ve taken to just using the auto notes function because, as I said, I don’t really understand what the purpose of the three note tools are (if I wanted to do paper sudoku, I’d do paper based sudoku; though I really don’t think one of those would be part of doing it on paper either)

TLDR: I really enjoy sudoku but there are only two in the arcade and at first thought they both have the similar problems, thankfully, this one actually didn’t! It’s a good app, though definitely has room for improvement. Pros: Easy to read numbers, sleep prevention mode to keep your phone from going dark on you, and you can turn visual hints off. I like that it has little info icons and tips for different settings so you’re not left guessing. Cons: The navigation isn’t the most user friendly which can be confusing and even a bit frustrating at times. I like the ability to change the theme color, however, I dislike that you have to cycle through all the theme colors to get back to one you like; having a drop-down or list to choose from would be much more user friendly. My last critique would be that when you fill in all nine cells of one number that number doesn’t dim, have a checkmark through it, or something similar. When I do sudoku in paper, I cross numbers out on the side to help keep track of which numbers I’ve finished using and it would be nice to have something like that as a possible option that could be turned off or on as desired. I feel that this app is probably one of the best sudoku apps that I’ve had the ability to play. The fact that it’s available in the arcade and I don’t have to deal with ads or in app purchases is a huge bonus. While the game does have some areas that could use improvement these are only minor and don’t prevent me from enjoying it overall, and that’s a win.