Who could have known math games could be so much fun? We've seen it with the success of Sudoku, and it seems like there's no stopping the spread of this newfound fun way of conquering fear of numbers. Based on Sudoku's younger brother, Kakro of Japan, comes Kakuro Nichiyou PSP 1.2 from homebrew game dev MK2k. To see how challenging this game is, check out the details at the full article.

Download: Kakuro Nichiyou PSP 1.2
Discuss: QJ.NET's PSP Development Forums

Developer EvilDooinz has announced the release of SudokuZen R2. New to this sort of puzzle game? You can catch up on a more detailed explanation of the homebrew's mechanics over in the full article.


Download: SudokuZen release 2 (firmware 1.xx)
Download: SudokuZen release 2 (firmware 3.xx)

With another Thursday ready to greet PlayStation Store shoppers in Europe, gamers have something to celebrate about as they got the jump ahead of their other regional counterparts when the PlayStation 3 Store featured the Army of Two Veteran pack, as well as several other notable titles, as its premiere downloads. You can check out the entire list of downloadable goodies for this week in our full article.

Playing commercial puzzle games is a good idea, but sometimes you just get that urge to play something a little closer to home - homebrew that is. Speaking of which, French developer bobthetouriste has designed a puzzle game by the name of 1..100. Find out more about it in the full article after the jump.


Download: 1...100

Up for a bit of mind-bending homebrew puzzle games? PlayStation Portable developer EvilDooinz has released a new homebrew game called SudokuZen. As the name suggests, it's based on numbers logic game that at one point or another, turned our brains to mush.

Check out the full article for more info about this release.




Download: SudokuZen v1.0 (FW 1.50)
Download: SudokuZen v1.0 (CFW 3.xx)

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.

Not really a big bit of news, but just in case you're part of the Sudoku craze, IGN reports that the PS2, PSP, and PC version of Empire Interactive's Sudoku, Carol Vorderman Sudoku, should be shipping in North America today.

Just in case you're not familiar with who the hell Carol Vorderman is, Vorderman is sort of the Josh Waitzkin/Bobby Fischer of UK Sudoku. She's a math guru/television celebrity in the UK, so it makes sense for Eidos to attach her name to puzzle game.

The game is set to offer over a million puzzles and live-action FMV tutorials and tips.

If you're a Sudoku addict or you're eager to learn, a trip to retail for this product may be just what you need. If you're short on cash, just wait for a homebrew Sudoku game for the PSP, and then Google up tutorials or something, unfortunately, that route won't lead to FMV videos of Vorderman  ...sigh.