Since the sad death of Richard Whiteley back in June, Mum and Dad have been without their daily dose of brain exercising, as a result, Mum has been doing the daily Sudoku puzzles in the Times.
Anyway, when we went up to visit Mum and Dad at the weekend, Beth got interested, and bought a book of puzzles, and challenged me to try one too. Suffice to say that we are all hooked!
Anyway, in true geek fashion, I had a look for an electronic version, so that rather than trying to decode my handwriting, and spending loads on puzzle books, I had a clean electronic version to work with. My little Dell Axim seemed the perfect host.
Looking at the options, there seemed to be two distinct leaders, Spiral Mile’s Sudoku Rules! and Mastersoft Sudoku. I’ve seen rave reviews for both. One direct comparison came down on the side of Sudoku Rules!, and one of the comments against a download of Mastersoft Sudoku highlighted a number of issues in comparison with Sudoku Rules!, so I’ve downloaded trials of both and given them a try.
The first big difference between the two is implementation. Mastersoft Sudoku has gone a .Net compact framework route, whereas Sudoku Rules! is C++. Mastersoft has a pretty regular Windows Mobile style interface, whereas Sudoku Rules! have a rather more unique interface. Mastersoft plays nice with the system, whereas Sudoku Rules! uses as much power as it can get to drive the game engine.
Looking beyond the basic differences, although Mastersoft devotes more screen to the Sudoku board, and has some pretty graphical gimmicks to play the game with colours or icons, in use, I find the smaller board offered by Sudoku Rules! is actually easier to use. The pop-up method offered by Mastersoft is decidedly clunky, especially when making pencil notes of possible numbers, which involves clicking a toggle rather than the quick twin panel method offered by Sudoku Rules!. Looking at the various hints, Sudoku Rules! scores again in my opinion, offering a variety right from a nudge towards the next cell to work out, to a full blown solution, complete with graphical indication of the relationship between this cell and the others.
In terms of features that Mastersoft have that Sudoku Rules! lacks, the main item is the timer and scoring, neither of which really appeals, in fact I tend to find the continuously changing numbers across the bottom of the screen just plain annoying. Even more annoyingly if you run out of points, so do the help and hints – a real pain when learning the game!
The final difference is the price, Sudoku Rules! comes in at $12, Mastersoft at $14.95, so with a cheaper price, and being the one I prefer, it looks like Spiral Mile get my cash!