ACTSudoku (UNLIMITED Sudoku)

As of today, ACTSudoku is on sale for $.99… the normal price is $2.99.

If you’ve read any of my puzzle app reviews, you know that I like to brag about being borderline retarded. I got kicked out of “advanced math” in 7th grade, was immediately relocated to the Math for Rejects class, and haven’t looked back since! True story. And this is why Sudoku has always scared the crap out of me.

I already knew the basic gist of how to play Sudoku before taking on Houdah Software’s version so I really didn’t need the instructions that come with the game, but it was nice to know that a quick rundown was available for the total noobs. Fill each small grid with numbers 1-9, but no row or column in the big 9×9 grid of grids can contain the same number twice, yada yada yada. Like all good puzzle games, ACTSudoku is built so that pretty much any idiot can pick it up and start playing.

If you really are new to the game, ACTSudoku is a pretty sweet learning tool and I think this is one of the app’s greatest strengths. It will give you as many hints as you need… and if you’re a true Sudoku virgin you may need a lot… in order to solve the puzzles. It also has automatic markers which, if you turn them on, will tell you what the possible solutions are for each square in each grid, and those markers will change progressively as you solve each square of the puzzle. I didn’t see an option to turn the automatic markers off after activating them, so I hope that will be possible in a future update.

When you’re ready to commit a value to a square, tap a square to get the 0-9 selector, and then tap and hold the number you want. Don’t worry, it’s easy and is actually really intuitive provided you don’t have tree stumps for fingers.

ACTSudoku is also built for more serious Sudoku freaks. It lets you place green markers that tell you what value you think belongs somewhere, and you can place red markers for values that you know don’t belong in a certain space. Solving techniques are also included for those who can make sense out of paragraphs that describe numerical logic (I definitely can’t), and the big kicker for beginners and advanced users alike is undo. Yeah, try undoing on a page of newspaper.

Other goodies include the ability to “suspend” a game or start over, bookmark games in a favorites list, and according to Houdah Software, the possible millions of Sudoku games that this app generates using something called “rotational symmetry”. WTF is rotational symmetry? Yeah, like I would know that!! As if.

I’ve only tried one other Sudoku app which I haven’t reviewed yet, and ACTSudoku is definitely superior for its hints (also known as cheats) and marker system. I suspect the only significant complaints from anyone might be that the markers are on the small side and “fat-fingered” people might have trouble entering numbers, but otherwise Sudoku fans should love this thing to death. The current $.99 sale makes it a bargain, and even at $2.99 it’s still a deal when you compare it to the financial (and environmental) costs that come with Sudoku on paper.