Summary

Sudoku is firmly established in the hall of fame of puzzle games. The game was invented in the 19070s by an American and then went on to become a blockbuster hit in Japan. Nowadays, it's a dime a dozen in the Google Play Store. We dove in and came back to the surface with Andoku Sudoku 2, the sequel to a previous Sudoku app that has been downloaded millions of times and is probably the most popular Sudoku app out there.

Read on for our thoughts on the new version of this app for Android.

Test device: 
-Samsung Galaxy Nexus 4.1.2

As soon as the main menu pops up you can get cracking at a brand new game, pick up a game where you left off or access the settings.

When starting up a new game you will be able to choose one of the following options:

• Standard Sudoku
• X Sudoku
• Hyper Sudoku
• Percent Sudoku
• Color Sudoku
• Squiggly Sudoku (Jigsaw)
• Squiggly X Sudoku
• Squiggly Hyper Sudoku
• Squiggly Percent Sudoku
• Squiggly Color Sudoku

Each type of Sudoku comes in eight (!) levels of difficulty, and most types contain 100 – 200 games, Standard Sudoku a whopping 500. It will take quite a while before you've played your way through Andoku Sudoku 2.

The puzzle itself is constructed in a very clever way: the top half of the display hosts the Sudoku table and above it you'll find the number and time it's taken you so far to solve the puzzle. The buttons are located below, as are the numbers, back button, notification tool, pause button and more.

Andoku 2 is set up so that you first pic a number and then apply it within the field as often as you like. This saves having to continuously press the back button. You can change the settings to the app so as to first select the playing field and then the numbers.
When playing the Standard mode you will find that all numbers that are the same are highlighted making it easier to spot them, or rather to see where it isn't possible to add a number. If ever you try to add a number that already exists an automatic error checker will highlight the number in red.

A feature facilitates making notes of numbers within the field, and I must say that this is a much more convenient options than when playing with a pencil and paper version.

Different colour options are available to brighten up your gaming experience: standard grey/white, black and a classic view. The black option is especially nice in combination with AMOLED displays.

The settings can be accessed from within the main menu. I won't list all of the options there are, suffice it to say that there are many, including: full screen or colour options, input options, help functions and configuration...
Andoku Sudoku 2 is great for beginners as well as for experienced Sudoku players, which is more than can be said for most other Sudoku apps.

All puzzles that have not yet been completed are automatically saved, which is a great feature.

Bottom line:

Andoku Sudoku 2 is quite simply brilliant. It's got everything a beginner or pro could ask or hope for, and then some! Plus, there are so many (15 000!) puzzles to get through that it will take quite some time before you have to search for new puzzles.

Andoku Sudoku 2 is very nicely made: the design is well thought out and aesthetically appealing thanks to its minimal approach and design.

There's lots of help and the three colour graphs allow for some options for personalising the user experience.

Even inexperienced users should find their bearings easily enough thanks to the various pop-ups with help texts, etc.

Controls are pretty perfect, save that I would've docked the settings (e.g. for the Android system) to the menus which might have made navigating all the settings options that much simpler.

Andoku Sudoku 2 trumps many of its competitors is this category. No loading times, no crashes and no issues within the app itself, even when you've saved several games simultaneously.

Andoku Sudoku 2 is our app of the week until December 2nd, and available for a special deal (only EUR0.99). The application usually costs EUR2.37. You can also check out the free version to check out if the game itself is a good fit, but getting the full version is definitely a fair option should you wish to show your support to the devs for coming out with such a great application.