What made Sudoku so special compared to other puzzles?...

I was thinking the other day, as you do, about puzzles!

And I was trying to work out what it was that made sudoku so different to other puzzles.

New puzzle ideas come and go all the time, but apart from a couple of word puzzles such as wordsearch and crossword, no puzzle has ever had massive success and consistent success that I can think of.

And certainly not a logic puzzle!

So what was it about sudoku that made it SO good that everyone had to have it and every newspaper was desperate to get it?

Because I like the puzzle but I don't find it better than many other logic puzzles, in fact there are many other logic puzzles that I personally prefer.

So does it largely come down to marketing or is there some particular quality that sudoku has that other logic puzzles do not have???

Re : What made Sudoku so special compared to other puzzles?

This is an interesting question.

I wish I knew the answer... I would summon all my creative energies (admittedly not much) and try to come up with something similar myself

It is very easy to understand and not hard to play, you also can get good quite quickly so have a sense of progress. That's all i can think of.

And luck must be involved to some extent too wouldn't you say - I mean there have been lots of word puzzles around for a while but there was no other logicky type 'number' puzzle around so there was a gap in the market.

Re : What made Sudoku so special compared to other puzzles?

Thanks Gemma.

I'm just a bit surprised people don't seem to get bored of it after a while - with crosswords the puzzle is always different with different words, with wordsearch the words are at least in different positions too I suppose, but with sudoku... it all seems so samey after a while.

Much more variation comes from jigsaw sudoku, say, where the grid is different every puzzle and this really affects how you solve it, giving it much more longevity, those puzzles are harder than standard sudoku.

Re : What made Sudoku so special compared to other puzzles?

Good question.

I enjoyed the first 100 or so sudoku puzzles that I did, but now I much prefer to try all the many other different logic puzzles that are out there, which sudoku introduced me too.

The rules of sudoku are very simple and anyone can grasp them - I think that this is perhaps the biggest factor in its success. Most other puzzle types have extra rules, and that can either put people off, or the puzzles can be more difficult. For instance puzzles that require maths can put people off, or at least require a bit of experience whilst you learn high and low combinations in order to start making good progress at solving them.

Sudoku is a good, fun puzzle, just not in huge numbers. But if you look at word puzzles, it does match the profile of a successful puzzle - think of kriss kross, or wordsearch: very simple to understand, easy rules, and they are much more 'the same' each time than sudoku.

Re : What made Sudoku so special compared to other puzzles?

It's an interesting question because it had appeared in America a long time ago without making any impression, and it was only when someone in New Zealand saw it in a Japanese publication then took it to the Times in the UK that it took off - these sort of questions can be tough to answer because the answer might just be "because it did" to "why did it take off when so many other puzzles haven't"!