Mar. 1st, 2007

tablesaw: A young Shawn Spencer learns proper saw technique from his dad. (Cartoon)
One of my favorite Christmas gifts from last year was from [livejournal.com profile] cramerica, three compilations from Nikoli (Penpa Mixes 1-3, for those who know what that means). I'm almost entirely through with book number one, though for me, finished doesn't include Sudoku, Kakuro, or Hitori, because those annoy me. I still will do some, but I have no need to finish them all. (Besides, if I want to do sudoku, I still have The Sudoku Code to finish.) I'm working my way through the last few Slitherlinks, which take me longer because I'm just not as good at them. I make stupid mistakes far more often than in the other puzzles. I also have a few of the last Ripple Effects left.

My favorites, right now, are Akari, Nurikabe, and Heyawake. And I mostly get my fill of these from Nikoli.com. These puzzles have the advantage of a very nice interface that lets me do things like test an option to see if it leads to a contradiction. And frankly, I still haven't found a good way to manage solving Akari on paper.

Back in August, when Nikoli took down Puzzle Japan, its previous puzzle website, I wondered why there weren't more of these kinds of logic puzzles available for the Nintendo DS. Because the puzzles are langauge-independent, and because the DS is region-free, I would be able to buy those games and play them here. Sadly, at the time, the only DS Nikoli products available were Sudoku (on Nintendo's Brain Age, as well as on several other games like Sudoku Gridmaster) and Kakuro (on the then newly released Puzzle Series Vol. 4, available only in Japan).

But then, in November, Hudson got together with Nikoli again to bring out Puzzle Series Vol. 5: Slitherlink. And later they collaborated on a second Sudoku game. But in March, Hudson is releasing three Nikoli DS games, Puzzle Series Vols. 10-12: Hitori, Nurikabe, and Akari. So, now I can start playing interactive Nikoli wherever I go. Which will be great for waiting until Hudson releases Heyawake in its Puzzle Series.

ThuNYTX: 11:45.
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In my rush to investigate the Puzzle Japan series, I completely missed Nemurenai Yoru to Puzzle no Hi ni wa..., which is a collection of several different Nikoli puzzles. From the cover, of course, it just looks like another Sudoku game, but apparently this one will be translated as the Brain Buster Puzzle Pak. The Nintendo blog 4 Color Rebellion says the translation came out a few days ago, but I can't get solid information about it anywhere else.

So, something else to look forward to.

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