Big Bang Sudoku Review

As the title suggests, Big Bang Sudoku is a Sudoku game for the iPhone and iPod Touch which promises a theoretical explosion of primordial number puzzling fun. Big Bang Sudoku comes with over 10,000 puzzles, a hint mode, pencil marks and player statistics. Developed by New York game studio Freeverse, Big Bang Sudoku is currently retailing for $4.99 at the iTunes App Store.

Big Bang Sudoku Gameplay

Given the thirty or so Sudoku games currently available for the iPhone it seems safe to assume everyone owning an iPhone probably knows what the game is. For those that don’t, here is my real quick description. Sudoku is a number puzzle game played on a nine column, nine row grid which is further divided into nine sections. Each row, column and section has exactly nine spots in which players will place a number from 1-9. The only rule in Sudoku is that each row, column and section may contain only one occurrence of each number.

A review of Sudoku really comes down to how well the developers implemented the existing game. In this case, Freeverse decided to tackle the super competitive Sudoku game category with an off beat spacey version of the popular game. So, how does it play?

In Big Bang Sudoku you enter numbers into the grid by selecting a number from a horizontal list and tapping the square you’d like to place the number in. A button below the horizontal number selector toggles the pencil marker which can be used for jotting in number notes. While I prefer a pop-up number selector, Big Bang’s method of entering numbers into the puzzle works just fine. Like most iPhone games, there is a lot of mistapping in Big Bang Sudoku. Clearing unintentional number placements is done by retapping the sqaure which works pretty well for those with smaller fingers.

Big Bang Sudoku comes with four different difficulty levels: easy, medium, hard and diabolical. According to their iTunes game description, there’s “Eons” of puzzles available. Apparently “Eons” is somewhere in the 10,000 range. If you play 10 puzzles a day, Big Bang Sudoku offers about 2.7 years worth of Soduko (more than enough to see you through your AT&T contract). I’m not saying you won’t see a duplicate puzzle, but the odds are definitely against it.

One thing I really liked about Big Bang Sudoku is that all game options are off by default. If you’d like, you can access the options menu from the main menu and turn on: show incorrect moves, show sun god, play sounds and show timer.

Playing through a Big Bang Sudoku puzzle feels a lot like every other iPhone Sudoku game out there. Meaning, the core game works as expected and provides a good Sudoku experience. With Soduko it’s really about the game environment and developer touches. I liked the row, column and section highlighting upon completion and the fireworks displayed when the puzzle had been solved were also nice.  I’m just not sure the sun god, space thing was the right choice for a Sudoku game.

Big Bang Sudoku Graphics

Big Bang Sudoku is a bit busy for a Sudoke game. The game board features orange’ish numbers on a two tone gray grid. This color combo can be hard to read for some people and in certain lighting conditions. I wasn’t a big fan of the “sun god” and found the moving background mildly annoying. For a lot of people, Sudoku is a game of peaceful concentration, unfortunately, Big Bang Sudoku does little to set this mood.

Big Bang Sudoku Sound

While I normally play Sudoku with no sound, I actually liked the sound effects in Big Bang Sudoku and left them on for a little while. When you place a number in a grid square the game plays one of several complimentary notes. If you play fast enough you can sometimes feel like you’re creating a little melody.

Big Bang Sudoku Price

Currently Big Bang Sudoku is selling for $4.99. I’m not sure there is quite enough Bang in this game to justify that price. For me, something in the $1.99 range would seem a lot more reasonable.

Big Bang Sudoku Summary

Big Bang Sudoku is not great, but it’s not terrible either. While this Soduko game has nice features and solid game play, it also suffers from a less then desirable color scheme and busy graphics. If the sun god, space setting really appeals to you then Big Bang Sudoko may be your game. However, if your looking for a super clean, peaceful experience I would suggest looking somewhere else.

By: Aaron Robbins