Industry coverage, news, original feature articles, how to guides, videos, podcasts and reviews of BlackBerry service providers, software, accessories, hosted exchange providers and more

Have you caught the sudoku craze yet? While it’s not new by any means, sudoku has become an immensely popular game in the U.S. For those unfamiliar, the object is to fill the numbers one through nine into a nine by nine square, divided into nine boxes. Each box, row, and column must have one through nine without repeats. It makes for an excellent combination of fun and thinking — and it can be beyond frustrating when you realize that you have two fours in the same row and have to start over again. Today, we’ll take a look at the better sudoku applications for the BlackBerry.

Of course, the game is essentially the same with any application. So we’re looking for the most popular games with the best interfaces. Price is another consideration…free is clearly preferred, though many times you can’t get a good application unless you’re willing to fork over some Washingtons.

Magmic’s Sudoku

Magmic has a number of quality time-killing games for the BlackBerry, including Solitare and Texas Hold ‘Em. Their Sudoku application gives you four new puzzles ever day, meaning you can easily kill a commute by working through them.

You can nab it from the Bplay website for $9.99. There doesn’t appear to be a trial version.

Find it on: Bplay.com

Sudoku Master

Real Dice brings a ton to the table with their Sudoku offering. They offer five different difficulty levels — beginner, easy, medium, hard, and very hard — so that anyone with any skill level can enjoy the application. It comes standard with a solver, which can get even the very hard puzzles, as well as a “hint” button, just in case you’re really stuck.. It also keeps track of your statistics, so you can see how accurate you are, and how many times you have to undo squares. In all, it advertises over a billion possible puzzles.

It’s a bit more expensive than Magmic, coming in at $14.95. It comes with a free trial, however, which is always recommended for games and applications.

Find it at: BBGeeks Store

USA Today Sudoku Fusion

Yeah, Sudoku is a cool and addictive game, but I’ve known more than one person who grew bored with it after a while. There has to be an alternative, right? USA Today brings it to us with the Sudoku Fusion for BlackBerry. They offer not only traditional Sudoku puzzles updated daily, but they also bring a few new games to the table.

Sudoku Mini reduces the 9 x 9 board to 6 x 6, so it might be a bit easier on beginners. Clearly, at that point you only have the numbers one through six to fill in. Sudoku X is a popular version among more advanced players. The rules remain the same, in that you have to place the numbers one through nine once in each row, column, and box. Sudoku X, however, adds the diagonal to the picture. Karuko is a number-based crossword, for those who are familiar with the clue-based puzzle. Finally, USA Today brings Sudoku Fusion, which plays like a combination Sudoku and Kakuro.

The only issue with this is that it comes with a subscription fee. So while you might not enjoy paying $14.99 for a Sudoku application, it probably beast the $3.99 monthly charge for this app.

Find it at: Handmark

Sudoku Expert

Sudoku Expert is a rather basic puzzle interface, though it does bring a graphical element to the table. The Mega Pack comes with Porsche, Yacht, Christmas, and Martial Arts themes along with its standard version. No, it doesn’t enhance the game at all. But it does give you something to stare at while you decide whether you can place the number one in the bottom right corner, or if it’s actually a three that goes there.

Some might find the cost prohibitive on this one. It’s $19.99, which is so far the most expensive flat rate for an application. It’s all in the skins, I suppose.

Find it at: BBGeeks Store

5ud0ku

Despite the incredibly lame name of this Sudoku app, it ranks among the best. It’s a very simple interface, and allows you to choose from three difficulty levels. It features a helper, which allows you to check the puzzle, use pencil marks, and show conflicts. It claims to generate its own scenarios, so there would appear to be an unlimited set of puzzles.

The best part is that this application is free. In fact, you can find a number of free BlackBerry games right here at BBGeeks.com. We’re taking the best from this list, seeing as free apps are usually buggy and not great. 5ud0ku, though, ranks among the functional ones.

Find it at: MobileRated

Sudoku CLASSIC

It seems almost redundant at this point to add yet another Sudoku application to the list. After all, how many iterations can you have of the same game? We’ll leave it off with Sudoku CLASSIC, though, because of the ease of play. It’s a quick download, and gives you all the basic features, like three levels of difficulty, pencil marks, saving, and undo. It has thousands of puzzles onboard, so it’s unlikely you’ll ever get through them all.

Yes, there’s a price: $14.95. I suppose it really amounts to what you’re looking for. Some people might prefer Sudoku CLASSIC to other versions, just because it’s a simple interface.

Find it at: BBGeeks Store

 Subscribe to the BBGeeks RSS Feed
Share on Facebook | Add to De.licio.us | Digg This! | Technorati