Sudoku or “su doku” means “number allotted” or “the number that is single” in Japanese.

Playing sudoku number games has immense benefits to an addicted player, sharpening the intellect and offering a challenge to the brain.

Sudoku was first featured in a magazine called 'Nikoli' in Japan in the late 1980s, having previously been published in the late 1970s by the New York puzzle magazine 'Math Problems and Logic Puzzles' published by Dell, under the title "Number Place"

I stumbled on Sudoku a few years ago. For a while, I would look at this grid with numbers and wonder how on earth I would figure this out.

Then it suddenly became clear to me, that it's just a simple game of logic. Hey! This is brain-bending fun!

A subtly deceptive game, Sudoku surprisingly, is easy to learn, but is highly challenging. Its really a "brain bending " game of numbers and logic. People have been captivated by this game and you can easily get addicted to Sudoku.

Sudoku number games don't require any special math skills or calculations. It's really just a simple, captivating and fun game which has a unique solution that can be reached logically without guessing. And all that's needed is brains and concentration.

Objectives of the game is to fill in the game board, a grid of squares, with sub-squares called regions, and a few numbers pre-placed. These pre-placed numbers cannot be changed. The player's goal is to fill in the empty squares until all are filled. The numbers can appear in any order but diagonals are not allowed.

How to Play Sudoku Number Games & Solve the Puzzle

Objectives of this number games is to fill in the game board, a grid of squares, with sub-squares called regions, and a few numbers pre-placed. These pre-placed numbers cannot be changed. The player's goal is to fill in the empty squares until all are filled. The numbers can appear in any order but diagonals are not allowed.

Enter digits from 1 to 9 into the blank spaces, called grid cells. Every row must contain one of each digit. So must every column, as must every 3x3 squares, so that these numbers, 1 to 9 occur exactly once in each row, column, and 3 by 3 box. There are nine 3 by 3 boxes, with each box split into nine squares.

Sudoku number games, broken down simply is:

• fill the other empty cells with numbers between 1 and 9 (1 number only in each cell)
• Number can appear only once on each row
• Number can appear only once on each column
• Number can appear only once on each region

A summary of these guidelines would be, that a number should appear only once on each row, column and a region (sub-grid).

Solve the puzzle by logic and reasoning alone.

Sudoku has no requirement to be either symmetrical or asymmetrical.Because thepuzzles changes as you solve, this renders any symmetrical layout obsolete, unlike what you find in crosswords.

Sudoku Number Games and its Benefits

Sudoku, with its many benefits, may have originated from a game called Latin Squares or Magic Squares thought up by the Swiss mathematician, Leonhard Euler. He invented Magic Squares in 1783, which had fewer restrictions than Sudoku with no lines dividing the square.

Identifying symmetrical patterns draws on the addictive nature of the brain, and Sudoku offers a challenge to the brain that encourages logical thought processes utilising the short-term memory.

It is thought that this type of puzzle helps prevent the advance of Alzheimer's and this offers some comfort for short-term illness, through its therapeutic thought patterns.

Sudoku Number games enhances Problem Solving Skills in Children. The advantages of teaching Sudoku to children are many. A child uses logical reasoning appropriate to his or her age level in solving the puzzle. This can be accomplished by putting in more clues to make the puzzles easier. Sudoku puzzles constructed with various degrees of difficulty allow the child to develop at his or her own rate.

This is where logic puzzle games are beneficial to brain development.

In fact Great Britain's government has recommended Sudoku puzzles be used in the classroom as brain exercises.

There are other variants of Sudoku number games, asides the popular standard 3 x3 block Sudoku I mentioned above.

The following are a few examples of Sudoku variants:

Samurai Sudoku a 5 grid 3 x 3 variant.

Within each of the five 9×9 Sudoku, every row, column and three-by-three box contains the digits 1 to 9. You need to solve the puzzle as a whole, you cannot just solve each Sudoku individually.

Super Sudoku a 4 x 4 block variant.

You have to complete the grid so that every row, column and every four-by-four box contains all the digits 0 to 9 and the letters A to F. Solving this puzzle is by logic and reasoning only.

Godoku, 3 x 3 blocks with hidden words

Complete the grid so that every row, column and every three-by-three box contains the nine different letters. Solve the puzzle by logic and reasoning alone.

Killer Sudoku 3 x 3 blocks with sums as clues

Complete the grid so that every row, column and every three-by-three box contains the digits 1 to 9. Each "cage" (region outlined by a dashed line) has a cage total of all numbers within that cage. Numbers may not be repeated within a cage.

Sudoku number games is not a game of mathematics, but of logic. Sudoku is an 81-square grid, broken into nine blocks of nine squares. The goal is to fill each square with a number so that each column, each row, and each three-by-three grid of nine squares contains the numbers one to nine. No column, row, or grid can have two of the same number.

SUDOKU TV game with Gun and Additional 48 Built-in Games

Features of this game:

48 additional built-in games, Includes 1 main joystick unit, 1 additional joystick and 1 Gun.

No gaming console needed as it plugs directly Into Your TV. Includes English Instructions sheet. It requires 3 AA batteries for main joystick.

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