Platinum Sudoku 2

They say we learn something new every day but, after playing more sudoku games than any sane person really needs to, I didn't think there was any more sudoku-related trivia left for me to learn.

Until a typo led me to a Wikipedia page about 'sodoku' - which is apparently a bacterial zoonotic form of rat-bite fever.

Those who are a bit sick of sudoku games, or who never really liked entering the numbers 1-9 into grids only to find, after half an hour's studious puzzling, that the whole thing is completely wrong are probably thinking now that contracting sodoku sounds more enjoyable than playing the similar sounding game.

But let's assume you're reading this as a sudoku fan, keen to find out if Platinum Sudoku 2 is the game you've been waiting for. Or at the very least, an improvement on the original Platinum Sudoku.

And to answer this question without any more talk of bacterial infections: yes it is.

The key to Platinum Sudoku 2's success is quite simple. It not only brilliantly delivers a simple, basic game of sudoku (with clear grids, multiple difficulty levels, hints and the easy ability to erase numbers that might be incorrect) but it also expands the format quite considerably.

Not only can you play lots of sudoku puzzles, but you can also play them in a sort of world tour. It seems that this kind of competitive sudoku actually exists in the real world - there have been world championships held in Lucca, Prague and Goa - and Gameloft has translated it into the game by giving you virtual opponents of varying abilities against whom to compete in bouts of speed sudoku.

So the game doesn't just have the usual bland, personality-lacking grids: it embellishes these with a fair bit of glitz and glamour. A tough ask if ever we heard one.

It even gives you real human competition by introducing an online weekly contest into the game. Complete this weekly grid against the clock, and you can then upload your completion time to compare with other gamers.

As well as having modes concentrated around more traditional sudoku, Platinum Sudoku 2 also mixes things up a bit, with varying success, with some sudoku mini-games.

Monsters Sudoku is a slightly strange prospect, which turns a small grid into a sort of dancing monster and has you filling in automatically chosen squares before the monster grows too big in size.

Blocks Sudoku is better and gives you a sort of Space Invaders/sudoku hybrid where lines of numbered squares get closer and closer to the bottom of the screen, only disappearing when you fire the correct numbers at them to complete a line. It's a good distraction to the normal game, and could almost be made into a game all of its own.

Finally, a variety of sudoku tools let you practise your game on your own or against other virtual opponents, and even create your own sudoku puzzles. There's an absolute ton of stuff to do.

For that reason, it's hard not to be impressed with Gameloft's latest release into a very competitive genre.