The Basic Rules

Kakuro is a great game–it’s sort of a cross between sudoku and crosswords. A kakuro puzzle looks like this:

The goal is to place the numbers 1 through 9 so that:

• every horizontal run of numbers adds up to the number on its left.
• every vertical run of numbers adds up to the number above.
• numbers are not duplicated within a run

If you’re new to Kakuro puzzles, some solving tips are included (Menu->Help->Solving Tips) inside Kakuro Puzzler.

[Note: all screenshots shown here are cropped to fit a 240×160 screen]

The Puzzles

The puzzles in Kakuro Puzzler were hand-crafted for Ridiculous by a professional puzzle designer. They were designed for a Hiptop/Sidekick screen–for instance, the Small puzzles fit on the screen without scrolling. None of the puzzles are more than 13 columns wide, which means that horizontal scrolling isn’t needed. 65 puzzles are included with Kakuro Puzzler, covering a range of sizes (Small to Extra Large) and difficulties (Easy to Very Hard). The Easy puzzles start you off with a “suggested starting square” selected, so that beginners have a better chance of completing the Easy puzzles.

The puzzles can be organized into folders based on size, difficulty, or how much progress you’ve made:

Grid Themes

Several grid themes are available:

Themes affect the colors used in the blank squares, and are purely decorative.

Number List

You can choose to show/hide a Number List, which shows all of the possible number combinations for the square & run you’re on. It looks like this, at the bottom of the screen:

As you enter numbers into the puzzle, you can choose to show all possible combinations, or only show combinations possible using your already-entered numbers. Here’s an example, showing all of the combinations:

Here’s the same list, showing only the valid combinations remaining:

Real-time Sum Status

You can choose to show the status of sums in red & green inside the puzzle. It looks something like this:

In this puzzle, the 10, 3, and 4 all have runs that add up correctly. But the 15 doesn’t (3 + 7 + 2 = 12), so it’s shown in red. This is very handy for beginning solvers, as there’s immediate feedback when a sum is wrong.

Penciling in specific corners

Kakuro Puzzler provides the same penciling features found in the Sudoku Puzzler games–but it also introduces the ability to pencil numbers into specific corners of a square.

This is particularly handy for kakuro puzzles, where number placement has a definite cascading effect. Here’s an example of the corner-penciling in action:

Penciling numbers in specific squares can provide you with more solving clues, based on your own penciling style.

Music

Believe it or don’t, there’s music in Kakuro Puzzler:

We’re trying it out. If you pick up Kakuro Puzzler and like or dislike the music, please drop us a line.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 6th, 2007 by ron and is filed under Sidekick/Hiptop 3, Sidekick iD, Kakuro Puzzler, Sidekick/Hiptop 2, Telstra (Australia), SunCom (USA), Fido (Canada), T-Mobile USA. You can trackback from your own site.