The Top 5 iPhone Sudoku games

It's a fact that if you run a Power Search on the iTunes App Store for 'Sudoku', you get a list of 30 games back in return. The Japanese number puzzler is, alongside Solitaire, the most popular iPhone game genre thus far.

Trouble is, how do you work out which ones are good and which aren't? Well, you don't need to. We've selflessly combed through the herd to pick out the five titles we think are most worth your dosh.

Separating them is hard - it's a question of look, feel and number/quality of puzzles. And personal preference, of course. But if you're feeling daunted by the sheer number on offer, these will make a good starting point.

The Top 5 iPhone Sudoku games

Platinum Sudoku Price: GBP 2.39 Publisher: Gameloft Platinum Sudoku came out for regular phones yonks ago, but it hit the App Store on day one for iPhone. Its key selling points are the slick presentation, the customisation options - you can tweak the backgrounds and soundtracks - and the sheer number of grids. In total, there are 20 million Sudoku and Kakuro grids available to play - more than enough for any iPhone owner to handle. Buy it
Mr Sudoku Price: GBP 2.99 Publisher: Ambrosia Software Created by well-respected Mac developer Ambrosia Software, Mr Sudoku offers a polished puzzling experience, and like Platinum Sudoku, lets you actually draw numbers on-screen with your finger. It can't quite compete on the number side, but it does offer thousands of grids to solve spread over four difficulty levels. Plus there's a neat Cover Flow-inspired interface to choose them. These little touches count for a lot! Buy it
Sudoku Unlimited Price: GBP 1.79 Publisher: Phase2 Media Feeling a bit of a tightwad in the cash department? Rather than plunge into the murky world of iPhone Sudoku freeware, how about this bargain title from Phase2? It offers three different 'skins' for the game, including a lovely-looking handwritten one (pictured). It's also got five difficulty settings, a hint system, and best of all, a puzzle generator that (in theory) means it's got an unlimited number of grids. Hence the name. Buy it
Killer Sudoku Price: GBP 2.99 Publisher: WhiteNile Systems Okay, time for something a bit different (albeit still involving filling in grids with numbers). Killer Sudoku is, as you may have guessed, focused on the Killer variant of the game. The main difference? It's much harder, and so aimed at ninja Sudoku experts. This offers an automatic Killer Sudoku puzzle generator at three difficulty levels. However, there are also 15,000 classic Sudoku puzzles to solve, and the ability to enter your own from newspapers. Buy it
Big Bang Sudoku Price: GBP 2.99 Publisher: Freeverse Big Bang Sudoku has apparently won awards on other platforms, although we're not entirely sure what gongs exactly it's scooped. Still, you can't argue with a game that features a hovering Sun God, and a fireworks celebration when you win. The emphasis is firmly on visuals here, along with a broad range of puzzles and the usual hint and pencil mark features. Buy it