Sudoku Variants Reviews

I used to love SudokuVariants. It was far and away my favorite sudoku app, but after the recent update it’s far more stressful to use than fun. Most of the “errors” I make are just misclicks in which I tap the wrong cell or number by mistake, but I’m being punished for this while solving. This “feature” does not make me better at the game. Why would I be playing a sudoku app in my spare time if I were just going to solve the puzzle by correcting displayed errors? I understand that I could change the settings to check for errors less frequently, but I would prefer to know if I made a true error immediately rather than after I’ve filled half the board with mistakes. I do not mind the ads, as I know the devs need to make money for their work. However, these could just play between puzzles instead of ruining the in-game experience. I am also not willing to pay the ridiculous repeating subscription fee to return to the previous state of the free app I once loved. I hope these mistakes are fixed, but until then I will be looking for a new sudoku app.

I enjoy SudokuVariants the variant puzzles are unique. Sometimes I want to play SudokuVariants but the amount of ads have me choosing a different one. I don’t mind ads in a free app everyone has to make $ but SudokuVariants makes you watch ads before and in the middle of puzzles. Also if you get too many errors you have to watch ads to continue. It also feels like the ads are longer than other apps it will cycle the same ad two or three times before it lets me play. Good app ads ruin it for me.

The developer contacted me and said they try to minimize ads but couldn’t make the game economically feasible without all the ads. And it’s comparable to other games.

People can make up their own mind. I considered buying the game but they are so greedy I don’t trust they wouldn’t find a way to charge again.

I finally figured out how to deal with the advertising with minimum pain, but since updating SudokuVariants , they insist on showing me “relevant” ads despite me previously opting out of relevant ads. Relevant ads =trauma, so I have no option but to stop playing this game until the issue is fixed. (Same traumatic ad 3x in a row since updating app … only as I’ve seen since updating)

Since the developer responded by telling me how to have ads track me, I would love to know how that helps me avoid ads that track me (which inevitably seem to be traumatic). Because there’s no way there ads are random. They absolutely are using data that has tracked me despite me turning off ad taking for SudokuVariants in multiple places. I’m not paying a fee just to avoid these people traumatizing me. That’s called blackmail. Besides, this whole situation just seems deceptive. I might be willing to pay if it didn’t feel so deceptive to me (it’s a decent game…) but wow…no…

Previous review: I mean SudokuVariants is fine. But suddenly overnight it went from an occasional brief ad to extremely frequent ads that you can’t stop without closing SudokuVariants entirely. I don’t appreciate apps that are deceptive like this. I might otherwise have considered upgrading to avoid these ads, but now it just feels dirty.

This is hands down the best variant sudoku app available. The puzzles are well thought out. The solving experience and features are intuitive and make SudokuVariants easy to use. And the hints help when you get stuck on particularly complex puzzles — or when you missed something obvious 😅 In the premium version, you get access to more variants and an upcoming master level of difficulty. These things, plus no ads, make it absolutely worth paying for. I’m on a lifetime subscription. And if you’re a variant sudoku lover, it’s a no-brainer to pay for premium. SudokuVariants also includes weekly special challenges which have a theme and sometimes use new variants not otherwise available in SudokuVariants or they combine the variants in fun ways. SudokuVariants also has educational guidance which is really helpful if you’re new to a variant. And there are older posts with introductions to advanced solving techniques which are also helpful. (By the way app developers, you could totally create another section of SudokuVariants for those to make them easy to find! And maybe link to them in the hints when a certain technique is used in a puzzle, eg - an x wing).

I’ve been working my way through the Cracking the Cryptic apps, and as I’m almost done with all of the puzzles, I have been looking for a follow-up. SudokuVariants has just about all of the great features that I love about the Cracking the Cryptic apps, with a lot of great, original puzzles at four different difficulty levels. One thing I really love about SudokuVariants is that within the different variants, you will often find elements from other variants mixed in. For example, the Killer Sudoku puzzles will sometimes have Thermometers. Stuff like that keeps each puzzle unique and changes up the way I have to think about solving them. Lots of fun!

First if all, I rate this a 5 out of 5! It’s is the best sudoku app ever made. One reason you should get SudokuVariants is that there are many different ways to play! There is normal sudoku aka classic and ones that add twists to the game! Next, it corrects your errors! I believe it has a 3 error limit. I also understand that you can waste a limit by misclicking, but if you would like to continue the game you can watch an add. You can also set the difficulty of the game. There is beginner, easy, medium, hard, and expert. These are just the few reasons you should download it! It is amazing 🤩!

I play a puzzle or two every night. I love the versatility of SudokuVariants . You can make it as hard on yourself as you want, but there’s no judgment if you decide to turn on error checking or hit a “how am I doing?” check-in.

It feels like there are endless puzzles, and I’m a huge hybrid-puzzle fan, so the combinations of familiar variants are perfect for me. The fact that they’re all handmade and obviously produced with love makes the subscription price more than worthwhile.

If you love sudoku, whether you’re a novice or a Cracking the Cryptic superfan, check out SudokuVariants. It’s well worth your time!

The game is enjoyable in that there are quite a few variants of Sudoku, and I love all the features, but there are some issues. As one simple example, on board 14 I got down to cells D1,D2 & I1,I2 each having 5 & 7 as potential solutions. Another problem with SudokuVariants is that the solver/helper defaults to “hidden single” most of the time when you click on it for help on a board. That wouldn’t be a problem if it really were true each time you used it. It would seem the apps algorithm just falls back to that when it can’t explain why a cell should be a certain value.

This has to be one of the best apps for sudoku that I’ve played. The number of variants and options creates challenges that are fun to try and crack. My only suggestion, if any would be in the different colors for the lines that are used. Having lines that are red and green, but are near the same hues of those colors, are hard to see for those who are colorblind. Making one a bit darker would help those with the most common form of color blindness see which line was which. That would change the appearance of a great looking game though, so it’s a question of accessibility over ascetics.

I got into sudoku recently because of CTC and while their apps are good, this one is miles ahead. The hint system is brilliant. This could keep me busy for a long time. I’m a bit shocked at how much free content you gave away. My one minor complaint is dark mode is hard to see. The contrast is really low so the colors all blend together. I also think it would be nice to support multitouch to select multiple cells at once.

It would also be nice to be able to play my own that have “duplicate solutions if I’m playing with different rules. Maybe a warning that the checker won’t work but still let me play?

I’ve reviewed SudokuVariants once before highlighting the depth and breadth of the puzzles. (I played the free version for two months and was so impressed I bought SudokuVariants .) Either way you choose you will not be disappointed. Hours of entertainment and logic learning skills. But I’m actually adding to this review the fact that the development team truly pays attention to its players. I was unable to comprehend the logic of a puzzle even after reviewing the hints. I took a chance at writing an email and not only did I get a detailed response explaining the logic - I was informed I could email again with any other questions!! Who does this!!! Truly remarkable! What a great app and team. I wish them much success!!

Great app with high quality puzzles and a hint system that can help you work through and learn some of the hardest and most interesting situations that come up when multiple variants combine. The “adventures” puzzles have me actively checking in every few days to see if anything has been added, which it often is. It seems that a small group of people both run SudokuVariants and make the puzzles, which you can tell are truly a work of passion. They also provide difficulty variations of the themes puzzles that range from introductory to mind melting, multi-variant sudokus that solve like a movie with different acts. 7/5 stars, at least one person working on SudokuVariants is a genius.

First of all let me say I’ve spent countless hours doing sudoku on SudokuVariants the variety and puzzle construction is amazing never feels much like a generated sudoku and the tools you can use to track the puzzle are very useful. However there is one more I wish I had, I would like to be able to “highlight” specific note digits within a cell by changing the color of the digit itself (not like the background highlight already available). Doesn’t need to be fully customizable just having a “primary” and “secondary” color would be wonderful, like a marker tool that works just like the pencil tool but overwrites the pencil tool. Being able to highlight certain digits like this makes it much easier to track pairs while also having full notes written in. Please look at SudokuVariants Good Sudoku by Zach Gage and Jack Schlesinger for an example of the kind of highlight tool I’m talking about.

I'm normally not one to leave reviews, but I've been meaning to leave one for a while for Logic Wiz. It is not just by far the best sudoku app I've ever used, but by far the best game app in general. It's easy to use, has helped me improve greatly at sudoku, and has many wonderful quality of life features.

Additionally, it's a huge breath of fresh air from soulless apps just designed to make money. The team behind it is communicative, does weekly puzzles and announcements, and it just feels very 'human' in a way that makes it absolutely worth spending the one time purchase to get the premium version. No predatory monetization practices, microtransactions, anything like that.

I highly recommend SudokuVariants all the time to my friends who enjoy sudoku.

I've used the sudoku app with 1.3M downloads, cracking the cryptic's classic sudoku app, and this one. Before last week, CTC was my favorite app - but once the devs pushed out an update to long press to select multiple cells, SudokuVariants has become the top sudoku app with the best UI, especially with that new feature being combined with double notation (two different sets of notes you can label your sudoku with where most apps only allow one).

Otherwise, all the puzzles look to be handcrafted, so unlike computer generated puzzles (which is what the main sudoku app seems to do), there's typically a very logical path to solving the puzzles, and it feels great when you figure it out.

Overall best sudoku app on SudokuVariants Store, super underrated. Give it time and marketing and hope SudokuVariants gets more recognition!

It’s almost criminal how few people know about sudoku variants. After playing classic sudoku over and over it just becomes algorithmic and second nature; only when you add new rules can you start to think critically again. All the daily papers just show the same randomly generated puzzles every time, and every sudoku app out there is just a reskin of the same ancient game.

SudokuVariants blows them all out of the water. Not only does it offer a wide variety of new rules to add to your sudoku, but there were some I’d never seen or heard of before. I think the developers are even working on adding a new variant they invented themselves! The appearance and controls are very smooth and intuitive, but it would be nice if there was a horizontal mode so I wouldn’t have to move my thumbs so much. There are a ridiculous number of puzzles all for a single payment, and I believe the list continues to expand with time. Most importantly though, the Adventures tab features a few new puzzles every week based on a theme, with sincere and personal notes from the devs, giving me the impression that all of these puzzles are handcrafted.

Simply amazing. If you’ve never played sudoku variants, SudokuVariants is the gateway to a new world.

-Alex

I’ve always been fascinated by sudoku, but struggled to get into it fully. There’s been tons of sudoku apps I’ve tried. Most are awful, because they have a bad solve engine, where tapping things
Is awkward. And they tend to be just classic sudoku
Then I discovered cracking the cryptic, and loved their videos. So I tried some of their apps and they were great. But those apps have a limited number of puzzles.
This is the gem of all gems of sudoku apps. It has all of the variants that you could want, and a wide range of difficulties, and the interface is just perfect, and they keep updating with new features and variants. I feel like I’m never ever going to run out of puzzles, even if I only play my favorite types.
Easily worth the unlock price, though the free offering is super generous too

I don’t normally review apps, but honestly this is the absolute best sudoku app I’ve tried, especially for all the variations out there. There’s tons of different puzzles using all sorts of combinations of variations on sudoku, and the developers add new variations now-and-then to keep things fresh, including ‘challenges’ for special events and holidays.

SudokuVariants does a good job explaining the rules for the different puzzle variations and these tips are always just a button press away when working a puzzle.

They also give you a fairly wide set of tools to help solve puzzles. Pencil marks, coloring, helpers for sandwich and killer variants, and more. I’ve always felt like I’ve had every tool I think I need (and some I didn’t know I needed) when solving puzzles. And just like variants, it seems like the devs introduce new tools now and then to help players along.

The hint system is fantastic. It doesn’t just fill in a cell for you, it tries to explain _why_ you would put that number there, helping you learn more of the logic behind the puzzles.

This was one of those apps that I absolutely did not mind paying for to remove ads and shoot some money to the devs. They’ve done a fantastic job, and I’ve lost more hours than I can count doing puzzle after puzzle in SudokuVariants.
Thanks for a great sudoku experience!

I quickly became bored with traditional classic Sudoku, but I love SudokuVariants with its endless variations, which allow me to stretch my brain and which makes each game a unique playing experience. The multiple difficulty levels let you tailor the game play to the desired level of challenge, and the multiple user-friendly settings allow customization of play experience. Even the free version allows for endless hours of play, and the infrequent ads are not terribly intrusive. The paid Premium version is also a reasonable price. I love the frequent bonus ‘Adventures’ that honor users, significant dates and current events. The creators of SudokuVariants also seem like genuinely good folk - they responded immediately when I submitted a question/suggestion, and they are constantly updating SudokuVariants to make it even better. Can’t recommend SudokuVariants more for people who want a more challenging Sudoku experience!

I enjoy sudoku. I enjoy sudoku variants. I think SudokuVariants is better than CTC and basically every one I’ve played. So many puzzles, that are interesting and often visually appealing. And I love the mixed rule sets which just add so much more depth to the puzzles —- Update after latest update: game is still great, most ads are unobtrusive. However ad/reset on mistakes are annoying and there are a few ads that are unclosable (ad plays and then x can’t be pushed), requiring force quit to continue — update 2: latest update seemed to fix my issues. SudokuVariants is great!