Sudoku :) Reviews

I love this this app app. It has THE best setup / functionality compared to all other this app apps I’ve tried. I’ve played it basically every day during quarantine. However, there is one really big issue which unfortunately has caused me to have to find a new this app app: As I start to play (I mostly play on Hard if that’s relevant), my phone starts to get really HOT and the battery starts plummeting. I have an iPhone 8 Plus, and I’m fairly certain it’s not a phone issue because I have many other apps that I’m on throughout the day. My phone is totally normal for everything else but Sudoku. If I open Sudoku and start playing at 100% battery, it will be at 5% in about 20 minutes. My phone literally gets burning hot to the touch to the point where my fingertips are legit slightly burned (visibly a little red, but mostly not visible just can feel they are clearly burned). I know I sound like a crazy person and my friends were like what the actual F, but...it’s real! So. Yeah. 4 stars.

TLDR - It burns.

If you haven't updated your app yet and are still using a version from before September 9, 2018, DO NOT UPDATE. The game no longer works with that update. It will not even register that you are touching the screen. In spite of numerous reports and complaints, the developer has yet to do anything useful about it.

Previous review: Simpler is better! After using a few programs with silly bells and whistles, this is definitely my favorite. It best replicates the comfortable feeling of doing the puzzle for yourself, rather than to necessarily beat the clock or hit a certain score. You have a clock if you want to beat it, but its presence is unobtrusive and pressure-free. You won't get hit by onerous penalties if you touch the wrong number or button (unlike a competing version that I have since uninstalled) and it's pretty hard to hit a wrong button anyway, because everything is arranged so well on the screen. If you DO feel competitive, you can check your position on the leaderboard and keep an eye on the clock, but none of the competitive aspects will ever get in the way of those times when you just want to relax with a favorite number puzzle. Get this this app app and you'll forget all about the others.

So, I had thought that I couldn’t finish the puzzles on the ‘hard’ level because I had it on that level of difficulty... but I always encountered the same problem... Every single time I tried a puzzle on ‘Hard’ difficulty, I would get the puzzle close to being done and then would not be able to make a single next move.. and this happened A LOT. I would come back to it the next day and double checked multiple times and still could not go anywhere with what there was unless I just guessed a number.... so I would have to end the game and start a new one. i have been playing this app for a very long time and have never had this problem before. And then today, I played on ‘Medium’ and the numbers that are already set have the 9s placed to where it’s impossible to put a 9 in a box section that needs a 9. I have a picture to prove it. It just makes no sense and the numbers given to start out with are poorly set up to where it’s impossible to solve. So now I’m thinking I wasn’t crazy when I couldn’t finish the puzzles on ‘Hard’ difficulty when that is usually the level I play on. Will be deleting...

Love this app and always thought I used Sudoku way too much. I was diagnosed with age related macular degeneration a few years ago. I had the dry type which can cause blindness but very slowly. My doctor told me to download an Amsler eye chart (a grid chart like a big this app) and use it to test my eyes. If lines become distorted come in immediately. That is a signal for wet macular degeneration which can cause blindness fairly quickly if not treated. Lazy me didn’t print a chart. Two years later I’m on the this app app and noticed lines had become wavy. Called doctor and I’m now getting treatment for wet macular degeneration

I like Sudoku but wish I hadn't updated. Now the statistics (prev. scores) are hard to read and in a ridiculous scroll box. When you complete a game that makes a high score, you are no longer notified. It's galling that the developer calls these regressions 'improvements'. When does the next version come out?
What I wish they would have fixed: my app consumes 400MB and climbing, most for app data. What could it be storing?? The board and scores consume a minuscule amount of space. Of course I could delete and reinstall, but I would lose my game records.
Other vast improvements would be not disappearing the board the second it's complete; and improving the ad experience (esp. the obnoxious audio ones (usually I'm listening to my own music while playing)).

I have had Sudoku and used it religiously for probably over a decade. I could obsessively play games for hours without interruption. I really loved Sudoku. After a 6/13 update, I can no longer go from game to game seamlessly. Now, I have to sit and watch a 30 second ad and then I have to close the ad once the ‘x’ appears at the end of it. I am done with Sudoku. As soon as I find a new app, this one will be deleted. As far as I am concerned, this has completely ruined my experience of playing this app in your app. Very disappointing.
UPDATE: I stuck it out a few months hoping things would get better but it is now worse. We went from an add every few games to one after every single game and even sometimes when you leave a games in progress and then come back, there’s another ad. I get you need revenue but this is over the top. Today, I sadly deleted your app.

Update:
I may be thinking of a different app made by ticbits but that doesn’t change anything. The latest update still seriously broke things.

Sudoku used to be made by ticbits (or similar name) and was great then. It must have been sold to someone that doesn’t know what they are doing because the thing has become the most annoying this app I have ever played. It crashes and proceeds to forget several of your previous moves. Tonight it crashed as I was putting in the last number in the last square and it forgot the entire game when I got back in. It has been long enough since the update that the developer should have done SOMETHING by now. Back out the current version and put the old one back in the store. Anything would be better than this. I know they are aware of the problem because they have responded to other reviews. Zero stars if I could!!!

I never leave reviews but Sudoku has gotten annoying. I’ve been playing it for years, and I was totally ok when there were ads at the bottom of the screen. They weren’t in the way while playing, but now when you finish a game a full screen ad comes up and if I’m listening to music it stops my music of course, which is annoying because it takes you out of the flow that it’s so nice while playing this app. If it keeps up I don’t know if I’ll keep playing this game because yeah ads are important and you may want to pay to get the ad-less version but sometimes you just want to play this app without paying and without stupid ads popping up while you’re playing.

I loved Sudoku!! It was fantastic! I’ve downloaded over a dozen other this app apps in the past to find the one with just the right interface that wasn’t too intrusive, but still provided a few of the neat features like notes that auto-updated and highlighting of certain numbers.

Then they go and update it with ads all over the place for their other games. Even for the paid version. This completely distracts from the game play and now I’m probably going to have to spend the next hour or two trying to find a new this app app... 😔

All of a sudden this game has been rendered useless because it continually freezes up while playing. Time to download a different this app app. 🙁

And since the last update, when all of the annoying ads came along, the game constantly crashes - you cannot play two games in a row without it crashing. The “resume game” option after a crash does not give you the board with the progress you had made before the crash - in fact, sometimes it gives you an entirely different puzzle. This used to be a very enjoyable app. Not any more.

This gets worse by the day. Now, you can’t complete one game because Sudoku either freezes or crashes. Why are you not fixing this problem???

Love that you can turn off any hints or highlighting that might offer assistance; EXCEPT when you've placed all nine of a number, that number grays out. Boo! No hints, no help. I want the ability to put too many fours out there if I'm not paying attention. Please fix that. I'm OCD, and those kinds of things bother me.

That's my only complaint. Everything else is great. I especially love the stats. It keeps track of how many games you've played, and how many you've completed, and your top 10 best times for each skill level. This is the main reason I searched for a new app, because my old one didn't keep statistics the way I liked.

But the graying out of a used up number may be a deal breaker for me.

Been using your app for years. Was a great thing even with the few ads that appeared here and there. Since the latest (recent) upgrade, the ONLY thing I noticed was an entourage of advertisements from start to end of game - no game improvements whatsoever despite the description that accompanied it.

Please read, hear and respond to he hundreds of your customers who have said the same. A few ads here and there is to be expected but you’ve smothered the game with them and it’s hard to enter or leave it now. What good is your app and how will your investors gain anything when all your customers delete it?

Please lighten up on the ads so we can start using your app again. It was our favorite - not any more. Thank you.

I’ve enjoyed this this app for years. Depending on how much time or energy I have, I can play a level that suits me while still presenting a challenge. I used a different this app app while learning to play because it had hints and guided help.
I like Sudoku because I can see how my skill compares to others playing the same game. It keeps my top scores and I can play to improve my own times if I want to. I find Sudoku presents games that are challenging- I love it!! If anything, I wish there was an easier way to quickly use the place-holders and provide hints.

This is my favorite this app app! I love the look of the pencil marks, the way it will highlight all of your chosen number to help see the ones you don’t have yet, and the different difficulty levels and timers/standings. I’ve probably played 5-6 different apps and this one is the best.

But for the last few weeks it has been freezing on start-up a lot... and in the last year some of the ads between games have had sound that plays even when my phone is on silence! I hate getting busted playing a game, and by a commercial no less!

UPDATE: I would like to thank the developer for correcting the porn pop ups I was getting. I love Sudoku ! I haven’t had any problems with the updates and enjoy playing.

I have enjoyed playing Sudoku for several years. Then suddenly while playing a game yesterday a porn pop-up suddenly appeared. I was able to close it immediately but it was shocking. I have never had that happen with ANY app. I’m thankful that I was not in public or that someone else was using Sudoku . Is this something that is going to happen occasionally?

I mean, I think the title says it all. User-friendly and coming from someone who hates sitting around twiddling their thumbs, I highly advise all of you to download Sudoku for those moments you need to kill time. It's a great way to keep those mental juices flowing. I always feel like I'm killing brain cells watching TV and online videos. Sudoku keeps me engaged without feeling like a vegetable after a couple of hours. It's really nice being able to start off on easy and upping the ante by switching to harder levels. Sudoku definitely has my stamp of approval!

This is a great app! It’s got 4 levels and it will keep your time stats. It’s very easy to see/read and you can highlight all of one color or put in small “pencil” marks easily. Also if you fill in a box with a number, it will automatically erase pencil marks of the same number in the same row/section.

A few annoying thing:
Sometimes the difficulty levels seem inconsistent. There are times when both Hard and Expert are impossibly hard and then there are times when Hard is so easy it feels like Medium. Also sometimes hitting “New Game” crashes the program and you have to open it again. But the loading page doesn’t take too long.

The ads usually come at the end of a game which is fine. They can be kind of long and/or loud so I always make sure to keep my sound off when playing.

I like this game. I’ve been playing it off and on for three years. I had a problem after the last update, some very noticeable latency started appearing after about 10 minutes. I updated IOS to 11.2.5 which required a restart, and since then, everything is now working fine. I must have had some odd conflict that the restart seems to have solved.

I was contacted by the developer who offered assistance. I appreciate that. Thanks. I have now just completed revising my review to 5 Stars.

This is the absolute best this app app I’ve found, and I’ve tried out a LOT of different apps. It’s simple and sleek, and I love the highlighting and notes features. The developers have been really quick to fix issues that people report, which is great. The reason I only gave 4 stars is because the ads are annoying and it’s ridiculous how expensive it is to pay to have them removed. Also, it would be cool to have a daily puzzle, a more customizable board (mainly color-wise), and more statistics to see how you compared time-wise to other players for specific boards.

This has been my go-to this app app for a long time now. The new update though hits you with more ads, especially when you pause a game. I get it. It’s a necessary evil and the developers need to make money, but Sudoku has been very buggy ever since these changes were made. Each game crashes at least once or twice, while also having to deal with slow down in the tap response. For the longest time, I’ve never experienced Sudoku to be buggy or have it crash until they started implementing more ad space. It’s a shame because it comes at the cost of the performance of Sudoku .