Doku Deluxe – I’d like mine with a side of fries and a shake, please!

Note: This guide is adapted from the Doku Deluxe guide that I wrote for Winster. (To be honest, re-editing mainly consisted of adding smiley faces back in. ^_^) The “Final Rating” section is completely my opinion and is not endorsed by Winster in any way.

Doku Deluxe is a simplified version of Sudoku, and it’s available only at Winster! If you’re familiar with Sudoku then this will be a breeze! If you’ve never played Sudoku in your life, well, then learning to play Doku Deluxe will be more like a bracing wind. Not bad though!

Let’s start at the beginning. When you play Doku Deluxe you’ll be in a room with up to four other players. Each person has their own Doku board.

Nice to meet you!

The board is a 4x4 grid divided into four colorful sections, or “quadrants.”

To get game pieces click “Spin” or hit the Enter key. Both methods work. ^_^ Whenever you have a clean board, the first time you hit “Spin” you’ll get 6-8 yellow numbers that fly to your board. You can’t move yellow numbers!

From then on out, each time you click “Spin” you’ll get a single game piece. It will have a white number (1-4) and a solid colored background that’s either purple, green, blue, or red.

The background color relates to score, but it’s really a bonus feature. More will be explained in the points section.

You can move pieces around the board by clicking and dragging them to new squares. Now, if you want to trade with a teammate, just click on the piece you want to trade away and drag it to the piece that you want. Your teammate will see a Yes/No balloon pop up with a picture of what you’re offering. If your teammate accepts the trade, the pieces will switch places!

Thanks!

On the other hand, if someone sends you a trade then you’ll see a Yes/No balloon pop up with a picture of what they’re offering. You don’t have to accept any trades if you don’t want to, but they’re a great way to finish your puzzle quicker and maybe make a friend or two along the way!

How do you finish the puzzle? Well, each quadrant has to have the numbers 1-4 in it. The background color of the pieces don’t matter, but you can’t have any repeating numbers!

In addition to each quadrant needing to have the numbers 1-4, each row has to have the numbers 1-4 too.

Again, the exact colors don’t matter, but you can’t have any repeating numbers!

Lastly, each column has to have the numbers 1-4 too.

A finished puzzle has no repeating numbers in each quadrant, row, and column! Take a look!

Hey! Where are you going? Come back here! I promise you, this isn’t impossible! Remember those yellow numbers you get at the very start? Since those numbers are always in the right spot you can figure the rest out with a little detective work. Here, we’ll start one together.

 

	It’s the first spin and you got six yellow numbers! Think of them as anchors for the rest of the puzzle.
	On the next spin you get a purple 2. It’s in the right color quadrant, but is it in the right spot?
	First look across the row to see if there’s another 2. All clear on that count! Next look down the column to see if there’s a 2. There is! That means the purple 2 isn’t in the right spot. Just move it over one square.
	Now the purple 2 is in the purple quadrant, and there aren’t any conflicts (duplicate numbers) in the row, column, or quadrant that it’s in. It’s in the right spot! Time to spin!
	A green 1. It doesn’t conflict with any other numbers, so you could leave it there for now. But if you want the color bonus you should move it over to the green quadrant.
	On your 3rd spin you get a green 2! Now the green quadrant is complete.
	As you spin, keep checking that numbers are in the right spots. If you have “extras” you can trade them or spin them to get  different pieces. (This puzzle still needs some work.)
	Once everything is in the right spot, Doku Deluxe will automatically submit the puzzle and you’ll get Winster points!

That’s it! Just take it one piece at a time. Before you know it everything will click and it’ll seem so easy! ^_^

 

Points

You’ve probably noticed the pretty colors on the Doku boards. No? Well take a look again.

This is what your board looks like before there are any numbers on it. If you finish a Doku puzzle AND keep the colors intact, you’ll get double the points! This is a bonus and isn’t required, so don’t worry if you can’t do it.

 

Finished Board	Free Players	Club Winster
Solved Numbers	325 points	1300 points
Solved Numbers AND Colors	650 points	2600 points

 

 

Tips & Tricks

1. One Step At A Time

Start by focusing on the quadrants. First, work until you have one of each number in each quadrant. If you want to get the color bonus then spin any “wrong” color pieces or trade them to a teammate!

Once you have the quadrants settled, take each row one at a time. If you see something like this:

Then you know it’s mixed up. Switch pieces around until the row looks right. If you want to keep the color bonus, only switch pieces that are the same color! This will keep each quadrant in it’s separate color.

Work your way through each row. If the puzzle doesn’t flash and vanish (meaning you got it!) start working through the columns in the same way. You can do it!

 

2. Puzzle Protection

Remember, once the number part of Doku Deluxe is solved, the puzzle automatically submits to Winster and you get points! If you’re working on the color bonus and just need one more piece, be careful! Any piece with the right number and any color background can finish the puzzle for you!

To avoid losing out on the generous bonus, switch two numbers so that they’re in the wrong spot. This way you won’t accidentally complete the puzzle! Once you have the final piece, switch the mixed up pieces back into place.

 

3. Help Others Out

If you have a piece that you can’t use, look around before you get rid of it! Most players arrange pieces in the “correct” spots as they go, so it’s pretty easy to tell what they need. If you have an extra red 2, look to see who doesn’t have a red 2!

 

4. Be Polite!

Always say "Thank you!" and "You're welcome!" after trading pieces! At Winster they make this incredibly easy. Just click on the "ty" or "yw" buttons and you'll automatically say "Thank you" or "You're welcome!"

To thank a specific person, click and hold on "ty." A list will pop up with the names of all of the players in the room!

When you don't say "Thank you!" you appear ungrateful. People notice this and will stop giving you their extra pieces. It pays to be polite!

 

Final Rating

I really like Sudoku, but Doku Deluxe just doesn’t cut it for me. I suppose it’s a decent starting ground for beginners, but if you’re a pro you probably won’t be too impressed.

Personally, I rate this one a 3 out of 5 stars. What would you rate it? Do you agree or disagree with my verdict? ^_^

 

Similar Games

If you like Sudoku then you should try some of these games too!

• Sudoku Puzzle Blast at Pogo – Sudoku combined with a jigsaw puzzle? That’s just bananas enough to work!
• Sudoku at BugleGames – Plain Sudoku.
• Drip Drop Sudoku at IWON – Um, this game is broken. Read for laughs, but don’t play it!

Sudoku – Simply Sudoku.

Sudoku at BugleGames is a very basic, uncomplicated game. I wish I could roll out better adjectives, but it is what it is. ^_^

Bare bones doesn’t mean that it’s bad!

There are no difficulty levels to choose from, and to me it looks like the default is set to easy. (I play a lot of Sudoku.) The red numbers are your guides, and you can’t change them.

To fill in the gaps, click on a blank square and keep clicking until you see the right number. If it’s a 9, you’ll have to click nine times. Your numbers show up in black!

 Vivid contrast!

If you need some help, there are two tools available to you.

1. Hint

Click HINT and then click on an empty square. The correct number for that square will appear in red. You can use hint as many times as you want, but each time it will add 60 seconds to your score. (That’s not a good thing.)

2. Mini-grid

Look in the lower right corner in the above pics. See that small grid? It mirrors what you’ve done so far. Whenever you have 1-9 in a row/column, the corresponding boxes in the mini-grid will turn light green. Now when you have 1-9 in one of the small sections, those boxes in the mini-grid turn blue. When the blue and light green combine it becomes a dusky green.

When I was playing around I found a slight problem with the mini-grid. As long as you have the numbers 1-9 in the section, the grid will light up. This doesn’t mean the numbers are in the right order. So you’ll need to pay attention!

 

That’s pretty much everything. *^_^* Score is based on how long it takes you to finish the puzzle, so try to be quick!

 

Final Rating

As far as Sudoku games go, this one is right in the middle. There’s nothing fancy about it, but it works.

I generally prefer harder Sudoku puzzles, but much to my surprise I found that I was making several errors! (Does that sound arrogant? It does, doesn’t it. >_< Blast.)

It took me a while but I finally figured what was tripping me up. The red and black numbers are great contrasts, but they’re so good that my brain focuses on the colors individually. I’d see all of the black numbers, or all of the red numbers. I had to really concentrate if I wanted to see both at the same time!

Many Sudoku games do this, and it always bugs me. Feh.

Anyway, I rate BugleGames’ Sudoku a 2.5 out of 5 stars. What would you rate it? Do you even like Sudoku? ^_^

 

Similar Games

If you like Sudoku or puzzle games, you should try some of these games too!

• Sudoku Puzzle Blast at Pogo – Fantastic mashup of jigsaw puzzles and Sudoku!
• Drip Drop Sudoku at IWON – Wait.. this is a terrible game! How did it get in here??
• Jigsaw Puzzle at Spigo – Flat out the best online Jigsaw Puzzle game that I’ve ever seen.

Sudoku Puzzle Blast - Cheesy goodness incarnate.

Welcome to Sudoku Puzzle Blast, by Pogo! Complete the puzzles to help a mouse in a mining cart get through tunnels, hopefully find cheese, and pick up a nice bonus at the end!

It makes sense. I swear! ^_^

Pogo actually has a pretty good guide up already. Do read it if you get stumped! And if you haven't played Sudoku before, here is a guide to get ya started. Basically you have a 9x9 grid, and you have to fit the numbers 1-9 on each row and each column once. To make things even tougher, there are nine 3x3 grids inside the BIG grid, and the numbers 1-9 also have to fit inside each mini-grid.

Neon green guidelines not included.

See why I linked you to a guide?

Still, Sudoku Puzzle Blast is a really neat twist on Sudoku. ^_^ In addition to figuring out which numbers go where, you have to figure out which *pieces* go where. Grey blocks are "cemented" to the board and will not move. The colored pieces are the ones you have to fit in!

It's jigsaw Sudoku! Sweet!

The puzzle above is an easy puzzle. There are 7 difficulty levels: Beginner, easy, medium, hard, expert, master, and bonkers. Harder puzzles have fewer gray pieces on the board and more colored puzzle pieces to work with.

I tried a bonkers puzzle for fun.

Why yes, I am masochistic. What made you ask?

Much to my surprise, I actually completed the darn thing! O_O

Oooohhh. Pretty!

You can crank up the insanity (and the points) by turning on rotation. This means you may have to turn a piece a few times in order to figure out where it goes. It's quite a challenge! On the upside you get 4x the points for completing a game with rotation on!


Features

When you make an invalid move, the board kindly highlights all of the reasons why your move was dumb. In bright, bright red.

Oh. I meant to do that.

It's a helpful feature, but kind of annoying at the same time. I REALLY hate seeing the board light up with red.

Since you can't exactly "pencil in" what numbers might go where, Pogo created Ghost pieces. Basically you hold down shift and you'll get a "ghost" piece to work with. The downside of Ghost pieces is that you can't see if there are any errors in your work, so you can easily build something that fits together perfectly but is completely wrong.

It looks perfect!

Yeah, that picture above? Not perfect. Once I right-clicked to de-ghostify the pieces, the board lit up in red. Dangit!

I'll be honest, I only used the Ghost pieces one time and that was to get a screen shot of them. As much as I dislike the red you-are-dumb numbers, if I'm going to make a mistake I want to find it early. But that's me. You might love the Ghost pieces. ^_^

Now if you get stuck or just want a little extra help, you can always hit the HINT button. All it does is take a random piece, tacks it on the board, and turns it gray. So really it's more of a this-piece-goes-HERE button.

You only get one hint, and there *is* a bonus for not using the hint, so try not to use it if you can. The harder the level, the more points you get for not using the hint!


The Story

Okay, I fibbed. There really isn't a story. You're just helping a poor miner mouse work through a maze-mine. At the end of each puzzle you get to pick whether the cart should go left or right.

Go right!

When you go down the track you'll find some sort of treasure.

That must be heavy.

The treasure is always cheese-themed, so enjoy that. ^_^ The token bonus is added to your puzzle score.

Twelve minutes? Slowpoke.

After completing the 5th puzzle you finish the track and uncover a bonus multiplier! It multiplies your entire score for the last level!

Toldja to go right. :P

You also get to see where the best multiplier is, and see how fate cruelly twisted you away from it. Sad day. :(


Jackpot

Sudoku Puzzle Blast at Pogo has a progressive jackpot with a max pot of $4,999. To earn a jackpot spin you must complete five puzzles and reach the end of the track! As with all Pogo games, the odds of winning the cash prize is teeny tiny. However! You're nearly guaranteed to win tokens, and that buffers the pain a little. ^_~


Tips & Tricks

No matter what difficulty level you pick, work around the gray pieces first. They are the firm foundation of your rainbow Sudoku house. ^_^

I like to work within the smaller grids instead of rows/columns. It's just easier for my eyes to focus on. Check the example below.

Okay..

In this example, there is one spot left open in the 3x3 grid. When I count all of the numbers, I can see that it's missing a 3. This means that I need to look for a piece that has a 3 AND would fit in the spot.

This actually makes it a little easier than regular Sudoku, because when you figure out one number, you have 2-4 that go with it. ^_^

Although the puzzles are timed, there is no visible bonus for finishing under any specific time. Take your time and relax!

And remember, for the best points you want to use rotation. You may have to work up to it, but the points are pretty skimpy without it.


Final Rating

I really love Sudoku, so this game is perfect for me. ^_^ Add in the bonus of having 14 difficulty levels to work with (if you include the rotation option) and there's a Sudoku puzzle for every mood!

If you like Sudoku at all, I highly recommend trying Sudoku Puzzle Blast. It's different, but extremely fun!

5 stars out of 5!

Drip Drop Sudoku - No Thank You

Ah... iWon Drip Drop Sudoku, how you fail! Let me count the ways.

1. Your beginner and expert levels are EXACTLY THE SAME. (30 spaces to fill in. No more. No less.)

Beginner above and Expert below. Can you tell a difference?

2. Your beautifully designed water droplets make it hard to see what numbers are already filled in. I kept having to go back and correct mistakes because I could not quickly and accurately see what numbers were already down. (For the record, I've never had this problem with any other Sudoku games.)

3. For the first time ever, I encountered unsolvable Sudoku puzzles. I would be left with two pairs of numbers that could fit in two different ways without any conflict. The only way to find out which one was correct was to guess. Sudoku is not supposed to be about guessing!!!!!

4. The "erase all" button doesn't have a confirm. Considering it's proximity to the "erase one" button, this is a Bad Thing. I was near the end and made a whoops cuz I couldn't see the dang numbers, and instead of grabbing the "erase one," well... You get the idea. Starting all over is annoying.

5. If for some reason I felt like playing this fail Sudoku again, I had to reload the entire game over and sit through ads *again.* Why oh why isn't there a replay button like there is on every other iWon game?

So yeah.. I don't like this game one bit. Sure it's pretty, but it has more problems than any Sudoku game I've ever played. I will not waste my time on it again. But for the masochists out there, here are the final details.

iWon's Drip Drop Sudoku is a Progressive Jackpot game with a max pot of $2,000.

Reality Check:
The odds of winning the Progressive Jackpot are "no worse" than 1 in 1,000,000.
The odds of having an ER-worthy accident involving a pogo stick are 1 in 115,200.

Sadly, Drip Drop Sudoku has the best odds of winning a Jackpot thus far. But I would rather play other games.

So I shall. ^_^

Final rating: 1 star out of 5