Following in the footsteps of the phenomenon that is Sudoku, if only primarily in name, is this colorful mathematical travel title from Blue Orange Games. Now, within the gaming world, just as in relationships, first impressions are hard to overcome. If you base Sumoku's worth on its cheesy-looking, polka-dotted triangular bag, however, you'll be missing a highly enjoyable product whose gameplay should appeal to an unusually wide audience, while subtly helping children practice their addition and multiplication skills.
It's appropriate that Sumoku isn't marketed as an educational game, since that aspect is more of a side effect than the title's primary goal. The aforementioned cloth bag contains dozens of small, colorful tiles showing the digits one through nine, as well as a die showing, on two sides each, the digits three through five. One player rolls the die, and from then on, players take turns interweaving rows or columns of tiles whose values add up to multiples of the value showing on the die. The only rule that truly approximates Sudoku is that you can't use more than one of the same color of tile within the same row or column. Players can, on the other hand, repeat numbers.
Sumoku's dynamics actually incorporate concepts more closely related to Scrabble, such as hooks, than anything else. Trying to find the ideal spot for a big score is a great brain exercise, yet the game never feels quite like a puzzle or like work. It's worth noting, however, that's it very difficult to build any sort of a lead that isn't easily overcome the next turn. Since there is no board, Blue Orange Games chose not to implement such common concepts as score multipliers, and you can't steal tiles or otherwise interfere with your opponent's success much at all.
Yet, the feeling of reward granted by a big, six-tile string often makes the preceding, flaw-ish observations downright irrelevant. Sumoku's simplicity, furthermore, makes it ideal for the entire family, while losing none of its strategic depth.
