Carol Vorderman
Can a hot, brainy gal make Sudoku sexy? No, but…
Tags: Carol Vorderman's Sudoku Categories: PS2 Reviews, PSP Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Apr 16th, 2007
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Carol Vorderman's Sudoku (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Puzzle | Yes | ||
Carol Vorderman is a math genius and a member of MENSA, a society for high-IQ people to flaunt their, well, braininess. The difference between most MENSA members and Vorderman is that, for a brainy gal, she’s kinda hot. Hot enough, anyway, to be a TV personality in Great Britain as well as a best-selling author.
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So it is that EIDOS chose the 154 IQ Vorderman to “host” its sudoku game, Carol Vorderman’s Sudoku, available on PSP, PS2 and PC. Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot to “hosting” a sudoku game. In that role, Vorderman offers some help and tips but is usually absent from the game when the heat is on. Her role is minor at best.
For the most part, Carol Vorderman’s Sudoku plays like any other sudoku game out there on the market, offering all the standard, expected modes including Beat The Clock, Extra Time, Perfection, and Three Strikes. There is also a wireless head-to-head mode on PS2, as well as a hot-seat online mode available on all formats.
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The concept of playing sudoku competitively is a bit alien to me. My wife only recently taught me how to play sudoku and, so far, playing it is a meditative, relaxing experience, a chance to immerse myself in a pursuit that lets me escape the stress of the day and put other things out of my mind. Playing head-to-head kind of ruins that, injecting stress back into the mix.
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The presentation of the game is fine but nothing special; there’s not a whole lot anyone can do to jazz up the look of sudoku boards, although Carol Vorderman’s Sudoku at least has clean background textures. That is in contrast to the PS3’s Go Sudoku franchise, which has moving patterns in the background that can be distracting at times.
Carol Vorderman’s Sudoku has four difficulty levels, although it’s hard to tell much difference between some of them. Difficulty often depends more on the board and spotting the first solvable pattern than anything else.
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What is most impressive about Carol Vorderman’s Sudoku is the game’s depth; it clocks in at just over one million puzzles to solve, meaning the game will likely serve the needs of even the most-avid sudoku nut for quite a while. That’s also quite a bit more than one can get from Go! Sudoku on the PlayStation Store. More people will get bored with Carol Vorderman’s Sudoku than will actually finish all one million puzzles.
It’s disappointing that Vorderman’s presence in the game is so minimal, but the wealth of puzzles and the online competition modes pretty much make up for that. If you already own a sudoku game you’re happy with, there’s no pressing need to get this one; but if you want one, it’d be hard to find a sudoku videogame that measures up to this one in terms of sheer depth of value. One million boards? That’s CRAZY, as Tracy Morgan would say.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Over 1 million sudoku boards included! + Backgrounds are more legible than those found in Go! Sudoku. |
7.6 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Vorderman’s role is minor. - Hard to distinguish the difference in difficulty levels, aside from the easiest; they’re all only moderately challenging. |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Carol Vorderman’s Sudoku offers over one million puzzles to solve and a variety of modes, but fails to feature Vorderman to any significant degree. | |
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Tags: Carol Vorderman's Sudoku
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Apr 16th, 2007 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, PSP Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
