Here's some good news for those in Europe who want to meet a game developer. Martin Hollis, the owner and founder of Cambridge-based game development studio Zoonami Ltd, will be appearing at Gamestation Cambridge on Saturday, June 9, along with members of the Zendoku development team.

Hollis and his team will be there from 2 P.M. until 4 P.M. to talk about game development in general and Zendoku in particular. Zendoku is Zoonami's puzzle title for the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP handheld systems. It was released in the UK/Europe on April 20 and is slated for a U.S. release today.

During the event, Hollis will answer questions about game development, so those of you who want to learn some things straight from the pros should try and drop by. Gamers can also bring their DS and PSP units to the event and challenge one of the members of the Zendoku dev team to some head-to-head Zendoku battles.

Some good news, some bad news for puzzle fans. First, the good. The Nintendo DS version of Zoonami and Eidos Interactive's new puzzle title, Zendoku, has been given an official release date. According to Worth Playing, it's now slated for a June 6 release in North America.

Here's the bad. Worth Playing also mentions that Zendoku's PSP version has been cancelled. Too bad they didn't provide more concrete information about this aside from not mentioning the PSP version even once after saying that it's been cancelled in the article title. Of course, a PSP trailer for the game was just released recently, so we're tagging this one as a rumor for now. Keep checking back here on QJ for more updates.

Where else can you play Sudoku with a martial arts twist? The best part is, it's going to the handhelds - PSP and DS. Zendoku promises some pretty interesting (albeit mind bending) gameplay.

Zendoku from Zoonami and Eidos looks fun and will definitely give players' gray matters working overtime. The minigames and the puzzles themselves look challenging. The characters are varied from the samurai Musashi, the Kendo master Sakura, the sumo wrestler Yatta, fencer Lorraine, the ninja Kingkage and the others. The trailers also show the training mode with the master. The classic Sudoku game is also in attendance, along with the game's grid game of symbols instead.

There hasn't been any official announcements as to Zendoku's release, but it was said to expect it this year. Might as well check out the screens and trailers while you're waiting. Enjoy!

Some more videos and a whole lot of screens at Full Article!

Zendoku for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) and Nintendo DS (DS), simply put, is a logic-based puzzle game Sudoku with a karate twist. It's not hard at all to understand but what's curious is the idea behind this game. Gaming site Pocket Gamer recently sat down with game developer Martin Hollis to find out once and for all.

Hollis, at the beginning of the interview, jokingly mentioned that Sudoku needs ninjas and that's all the explanation the fans will ever need. And then he commented that it is Zoonami Ltd.'s priority to come up with good and unique video games. He admitted that there were a lot of bumps along the way and the title wasn't really intended for the handhelds. Hollis remarked,

We've made a large number of game prototypes on a variety of platforms and learned a lot along the way, but unfortunately struggled to find development deals that were right for us. With Zendoku, we didn't decide specifically to make a DS or a PSP game. The important thing for us is to make a good game and choose the right platform for it.

And we believe that it has all the potential to become a great game. Instead of numbers, players will be matching up colorful symbols in Zendoku. Aside from the puzzle game, there are various characters available with his own unique graphics, themes and storylines.

"Every time you complete a row, column, or 3x3 box on the sudoku grid, you launch an attack on your opponent. You also launch an attack when you fill in all nine of one symbol," Martin Hollis explains. Speaking of attacks, take note that these can be blocked provided that your character's lucky symbol is quickly placed on the grid.

Aside from the head-to-head combat, there is also a single player mode where everything is the same except the your opponent now is time. Accordingly, placing the lucky symbols on the grid will stop the clock momentarily. Even though Zendoku wasn't originally planned for the handhelds, Martin Hollis believes that it is a match made in heaven,

Zendoku is perfect for DS because it's a vibrant, colourful, fun Nintendo-style game. The sudoku gameplay is perfect for the stylus and the attacks are more fun on the DS with a stylus than without. Equally, we feel PSP definitely needs more fun, casual games that are pick-up-and-play, so we've developed another version of Zendoku especially for it.

For those who may be looking for yet another new twist to the classic Sudoku games, then Zendoku would be just right up your alley. Developed by Zoonami and published by Eidos Interactive for both PSP and DS, Zendoku is set to be released sometime this year, and is expected to be a great addition to a lot of puzzle lovers' game libraries.

In Zendoku, symbols instead of numbers are used to either "defend from" or "attack" an opponent. However, the exact mechanics of this feature are yet to be explained by the devs, and we are left wondering if perhaps this game will be the Sudoku version of that OTHER popular puzzle-battle-RPG game, Puyo Puyo.

Peppered with oriental themes and whimsical bits of martial arts, Zendoku offers players an option of either going on a single-player quest, or going on multiplayer mode and battling it out with an opponent.

While we wait for more details about this game to surface, here's the latest batch of screenshots that we can enjoy for now.

In line with its preparations for releasing its Zendoku game for the PSP and DS this year, Eidos Interactive has set up a web site containing information players will want to know before they start playing the game. The Zendoku site will carry game-centric goodies like details on gameplay tutorials, gameplay modes, character biographies, and also carries media trinkets like downloadable wallpapers, character art, and a gameplay trailer to give people an idea of how Zendoku's action handles.

Unfortunately, the site's unavailable at the moment (site maintenance, apparently), although we're more than happy to explain what the game's all about. Zendoku is a Sudoku-based puzzle action game developed by Zoonami.

Instead of using numbers, however, Zendoku instead uses symbols and icons, along with a light-hearted martial arts theme (the name Musashi should have given that away...) to give gamers a comical and fun atmosphere to play in. Slap on the multiplayer feature, and you can imagine why the PSP and DS owners on our side are getting excited as well. If that wasn't quite enough information for you guys, we also have some screenshots for both PSP and DS versions of the game down below. Happy viewing!

The rest of Zendoku's DS screenshots at full article.

One of the best things to ever come out for a handheld are puzzle games. They're the easy pick-up-and-play type that's perfect for the on-the-go gamer. Check out most of the homebrew games we've posted. Lots of fun puzzle games there. And when you're talking about puzzle games, one of the more recent fads is that of Sudoku.

We've seen lots of variants of the Japanese logic game (no, it's not a numbers game!). Here's yet another one with its very own unique twist. Zenduko is coming out on Q2 2007 for the PSP and NDS, as published by Eidos Interactive and developed by Zoonami Ltd. If you notice some of the screens, one mode you get to play Sudoku in is, instead of working with numbers, you work with symbols and icons. Another mode? We'll give you a clue: it starts with the letter "M" and rhymes with "ultiplayer." What more do you need for some handheld entertainment?

More puzzle action behind the "Full Article" jump!

Following their announcement of the new Sudoku-based puzzle game entitled Zendoku (PSP, DS), Eidos will let us have a feel of what the game will be like by releasing the first batch of screenshots for Zendoku.

As we mentioned in an earlier article, Zendoku will be like your good old paper-and-pencil game, but bumped up to your handhelds' technology. And of course, it'll be waaaay cooler because it's not just an ordinary puzzle game. Zendoku will have everything that gets you hooked on puzzles infused with Sudoku gameplay. The first screenshots of the game gives us a quick-see of two of the many characters that will be featured in the game, Ayumi and Musashi.

 

We will keep you posted for more game developments so make sure you check back with us for updates. And with that, here are the first Zendoku screens for your PSP and DS.

Eidos Interactive has teamed up with developer Zoonami Ltd. to bring us yet another title to add to our growing list of puzzle handheld games.

The upcoming game, entitled Zendoku, will offer both single-player and wireless multi-player modes, and will combine action with Sudoku Gridmaster gameplay. According to IGN, the colorful characters in this puzzle game will be set against a Far Eastern backdrop with a bit of a martial arts theme.

Players will be required to attack or defend against a challenger, or work under extreme time pressures while trying to complete one of the game's puzzle permutations. Other than that, not much details have been revealed by either of the two companies. But Matt Gorman, Director of Marketing for EI, says, "Zendoku brings a new and fresh perspective to the enormously popular Sudoku puzzle craze."

Zoonami's CEO Martin Hollis also boasts that what they've basically done is turn your good old paper-and-pencil game into an interactive "puzzling, battling, micro-gaming, fighting extravaganza." As we said, information on the game is still scarce and no official release date has been announced. We will keep you posted for more updates.