Maybe you missed it…Platinum Sudoku

Platinum Sudoku is the most complete Sudoku game I have ever played on the Nintendo DS.

It successfully borrows the excellent control scheme found in the Brain Training version of sudoku and combines it with a huge number of sudoku puzzles (20 million!), kakuro puzzles and some other highly entertaining mini-puzzles. The control scheme works like a charm and makes it a dream to play. The little mini-puzzles also add plenty to the package, with the pairs match game being especially fun. The kakuro puzzles are a welcome addition, providing a great alternative to the sudoku. There is even the option of making your own sudoku grids. The only negative is the lack of single card multiplayer.

Living with a casual gamer

Casual gamers are often accused of being the death of the video game industry. Most hardcore gamers are happy to believe our casual gaming friends are destroying real gaming by just buying any old crap that is put on the shelves. Merely mentioning the the name Carnival Games on video game message boards is enough to guarantee that someone will claim casual gamers will buy anything that features mini-games or has a Z at the end of its title. But is this necessarily true?

Well, my experience has so far shown me that this is completely inaccurate. In fact, I have found that casual gamers are far more difficult to please than any hardcore gamer will ever be. Getting a casual gamer to even try a game is difficult, but finding one that they enjoy is even harder.

How do I know this? Well, I live with a stereotypical casual gamer and it is almost impossible to find a game that she wants to play. For the sake of anonymity I shall call this person EB. EB is a 30 year old female (she still claims 21), who has her own DS and access to the household Wii. She plays games to relax, kill time and for mental stimulation. EB will only go into gaming shops/sections if I drag her in, kicking and screaming, and she has absolutely no interest in the gaming industry. All of her information about games comes from a game’s packaging, television advertising or from me. Despite all this, EB plays games on a daily basis, clocking up more hours in front of the DS than I manage on the DS and Wii combined.

While I can find any number of DS and Wii games that I know I will like, finding a game for EB can be frustratingly difficult. My game library is filled with plenty of games that I was sure EB would like, but sadly, it turned out that she just didn’t find them all that entertaining. The good news is that once EB finds a game that she likes, she will spend hundreds of hours playing it, to the point that hearing the music or sound effects again and again can drive me insane.

The Living with a Casual Gamer series will examine which games EB likes, and more importantly, the common elements that link these games together. Hopefully, it will help us harcore gamers understand the casual crowd a little more too and help anyone having trouble finding suitable games for the casual gamer in their lives.

I made it on to Screen Play’s Your Turn

A while back I wrote an article for Screen Play’s Your Turn section and it finally got published today.

It’s called Do not feed the fanboys and is about fanboys and how they are the lifeblood of the video game industry.

Head on over and check it out.