Platinum Sudoku 2: Great Battery Drainer!

Had this Samsung SPH-m300 a couple years now. Just a basic cell phone. Decent features. I've test-texted a story, of sorts, to my blog: an experiment...I was all thumbs at. The phone has its web browser, hasn't memory enough, I couldn't possibly get into Protag, but then this handy flip phone was only really intended for roadside emergencies and such; for phoning ahead when I'm running late for Christmas dinner. It's off more than on.

When I first wrestled it out of its fiendishly unyielding blister pack those years ago, I tried downloading a Sudoku game. Yes, Yoda would say, "Do, or do not, there is no Try": sometimes having tried best sums-up any attempt at doing, Master. The download never worked. Spent an hour on the phone with customer service re-trying, eventually draining dead the phone battery. The phone settled into its use-as-needed, two-year slumber inside my fanny pack.

Until this week. Not that there was any emergency; no family dinner to go to. I wanted to...try, again. I wanted Sudoku for this phone. And the download worked, spectacularly!

Platinum Sudoku 2, by Gameloft. Ubisoft's equally talented game-developer sibling, Gameloft. I should say here my Samsung SPH-m300 version of Platinum Sudoku 2 (version 1.0.2) doesn't at first playing match exactly the game description from Gameloft.com, so it's likely as they say: game content does vary by handset.

I'm still happy with this version 1.0.2 I got. Splendiferous mobile number-puzzler I wouldn't call a little game. Basic Sudoku comes in five difficulty modes: Easy, Medium, Hard, Professional, and Sudoku X. It's said that finishing a game on Hard unlocks Professional Mode. Finishing one on Professional unlocks Sudoku X. The playing field adds the diagonal in Sudoku X. That's sure to hurt my little grey cells, heh.

The Sudoku grid is bright and readable. From the Options menu, I can choose from 3 grids, 6 fonts, 3 control configurations. Play with sound on or off: I've heard a lively Euro'Pop Welcome theme and Congratulatory fanfare; tones confirming menu activations. And there are skins: differently coloured and textured backgrounds, to match my playing mood. I unlocked a skin simply in finishing my first game on Easy. The game called me a genius for that.

I'm no Sudoku master. I play for the fun of it. Easier puzzles: for the quick buzz. And the not as easy: the sit-and-stares. The Tutorial in Main Menu delivers game basics. In Sudoku, numbers 1 through 9 must show only once in every line, every column, every 3 x 3 box. Depending on the challenge level a player likes, more or fewer numbers are given at the start: clues sprinkled over the Sudoku grid. Aforementioned player fills in the blanks until all 81 cells are done. And correct.

Filling in those blank cells is a simple thumb exercise on the phone. I'm playing with default controls. Tapping the navigation ring moves us around the 81-cell puzzle grid. Pressing a number on the numbers pad enters that number. Pressing 0 deletes the number. The * shows a hint. The # enters a draft number.

We access all the goodies from the game Main Menu. Besides Sudoku Game, there's Solver Mode (the computer solves a puzzle you input, say a puzzle from the morning newspaper), and Custom Puzzle (when You want to solve the puzzle from the morning paper). We've got our Stats to ogle. Those display Options to tinker with. And the Tutorial, which I haven't finished. I'm going to play through the Tutorial just as soon as I'm done writing this: finishing Tutorial unlocks a skin, too.

There are hints, coins for buying those hints. Guessing there's a rewards system here. When I'm done, there's a nice plain EXIT from the main menu. And the game saves a game in progress: saved even when I was interrupted and simply closed the flip-phone (the bus...my stop).

I can see myself draining the phone battery over and over, over this jewel. Even my version 1.0.2 cut of it.