Pyramid Review
Sudoku: The Card Game
Published by Z-Man Games
Designed by Reiner Knizia
Graphics by Joshua Cappel
54 cards (nine yellow, 45 blue), rules; boxed, two to five players; $15
If you've never tried your hand at the Sudoku puzzle in the "living" section of your local newspaper, you don't know what you're missing: tired eyes, an aching head, frustration, a torn up "living" section from your local newspaper . . . but help is on the way. Sudoku: The Card Game from Z-Man Games (the company distinction is worth making because more than one company is putting out board and card versions of this pastime) releases it from its one-solution limitation and turns it into a freeform mental endeavor.
The object of the game is to have the fewest points left in your penalty stack.
For those not familiar with the standard game: Sudoku has a set of three-by-three grids and asks you to fill the smaller boxes with numbers one through nine so that every line and column in a larger layout uses every number just once. In this game, a single yellow card is placed in the middle of the table. The remaining cards are shuffled and everyone is dealt a hand. Yellow cards are the points around which the rest of the game revolves. Blue cards are situated about the yellows.
You're not stuck making the same three-by-three grids -- not exactly, anyway. There are nine yellow cards (one with each digit), and you have to surround them with blues. Each number can only . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: November 10, 2006
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