Toon-Doku
Score: 82% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Majesco Developer: Dragon's Den Unlimited Media: Cartridge/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Puzzle
Graphics & Sound: Is the cold hard look of Sudoku keeping you from playing? How can you get younger players to embrace an extremely challenging puzzle game and bring it down to their level? Well, look no further than Toon-Doku. This game brings the game home for a younger generation without the rough, cold look of a bunch of numbers staring back at them. Because there is absolutely no difference between the game Sudoku and our game Toon-Doku, except the look of the individual pieces, you would expect to see very clear delineation between pieces. My problem was that there were too many similar pieces right from the beginning. With the screen size, I found myself squinting at many of the pieces. I thought it was only me, so I did a little play-testing. A lot of younger kids had the same trouble. You can zoom into a square, or grid, but in a game that requires you to view all of the board all of the time, this made it hard for younger kids to switch back and forth. This is quickly fixed as you gain new pieces and can really vary the look, but right at first with no adjustment, it can be hard. As expected with any puzzle game, there is a looping soundtrack in your future. Luckily there are five to choose from. This may or may not be a good thing depending on the number of hours you will spend playing it.
Gameplay: Sudoku and Toon-Doku are mathematical, square, puzzle games based on the idea of "Latin Squares." These are grids in which a set of numbers is set out across several "squares" while never repeating horizontally or vertically. If that doesn't explain it all ,then I suggest your first stop be the Tutorial section of the Main Menu. This Tutorial section contains, funnily enough, but I am sure on purpose, nine lessons you will need to get started and actually everything you need to know about the game. Along with the tutorial in this main section, you will find Stage Mode, Instant Play, Multiplayer and Options. The very first time you plug in the game, you are asked your name and the avatar you wish to use. After completing the Tutorial, or if you are familiar with the game, then head straight into Stage Mode. This section will take you through 90 progressively harder preset puzzles. As you complete puzzles and difficulty areas, you will be rewarded with unlocked pieces and avatars. In Instant Play, you can choose your puzzle based on the number of pieces that are locked into place and the style of where they are locked into place. The number of pieces you have locked in place determines how hard a puzzle will be. The more pieces you have to place, the greater the chance that you will make a mistake. In the Multiplayer Mode, your opponent must have a Toon-Doku card. You can share the Instant Play Mode with up to 16 different players, but to compete in the Race, Battle, and Advisory games in Multiplayer, you must have a second card. Inside of the Options Menu, not only can you switch the pieces you want to use for your nine characters, but you can use the edit feature to change and or create any piece you want. I have spent as much time playing with this as the actual game. Once you have made a set or if you just want to trade pieces, you can do so through the Multiplayer Mode
Difficulty: There is a reason that millions embrace the game of Sudoku, and Toon-Doku is no different. The game can be made to be so simple that a young child may provide the answers quickly. It can also be so hard that it may cause you to turn your DS into a pile of scrap. The difficulty modes range from "Tutorial" to "Just Plain Mean." I won't find myself playing the higher levels for quite a while, but the point is that there is something here for a beginner up to the MENSA President. If the cartoon look of the game is too much for you, remember, as I said earlier, that you can edit the pieces to look like whatever you want them to look like. Or, there are some some handy pre-made numbers so that you can return it to its original look and feel.
Game Mechanics: Toon-Doku is Sudoku with different pieces. That is the mechanic. Just kidding, or maybe not, but the editing feature allows you to create some pretty fantastic pieces for use in your own game or to trade with others. Plus, you can make yourself the big hero with bored DS players around you as you can host up to 16 other players. This is a limited game and you can't actually compete with someone who doesn't have another Toon-Doku card, but again you will be a god to bored people around you. Never mind that the Japanese translation of the word "Doku" by itself means "Poison," this is by nature an extremely addictive game. Toons or numbers -- it doesn't matter. People love to play. This is a great way to introduce younger players to the concept and gameplay of Sudoku. You may have to get them set up with pieces they can easily identify as different at first, but it is worth the few moments this may take. I am slowly working my daughter into looking at the numbers now that she gets the concept with the cartoon pieces. Before too long, she will be showing me how to play.
-WUMPUSJAGGER, GameVortex Communications AKA Bryon Lloyd
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