Over twenty years ago Nikoli, the Japanese puzzle and game company,
started publishing a curious logic puzzle called Sudoku. The rest of the
world recently joined the Sudoku craze by using computer programs to
create puzzles, but Nikoli is the only company that still crafts their
puzzles the old-fashioned way: by hand. As Ad Age wrote in a profile,
the Nikoli credo is "The Best Puzzles Are Made by Happy Employees." And
for solvers, it really does make a difference--there's an elegance and
symmetry to the puzzles, plus a sense of interaction. The puzzle-maker
knows just when to encourage, and when to withhold. Puzzles marked
"Easy," are easy because the puzzler leads you through. Those marked
"Very Hard" are exactly that--they pit your mind against the mind of the
master, who seems to share the joy of that moment when one hard-won
number is captured, and the entire puzzle tumbles into place.
An obsessive's collection, More Original Sudoku features over 300
puzzles, all in a chunky, easy-to-carry format (it even fits into a
standard jeans-size back pocket). An introduction shows how to solve the
puzzles at various levels of difficulty, and it includes a tutorial on
how to create your own hand-made Sudoku.
Here's wishing you Gokouun o inorimasu! (Good luck!)
