20 ways to make an interesting mobile sudoku game

You might think the one thing the world doesn't need is another mobile sudoku game. Especially on iPhone, where gamers are overwhelmed with choice. With most of those choices being rubbish.

But no. We've been thinking hard about how to make mobile sudoku games more interesting, and have come up with 20 possible tactics. We'll come back to this in a year's time and see how many developers have implemented them...

1. Explosions when you enter a number correctly. Proper Hollywood explosions.

2. Bluetooth Sudoku, where you can zap a puzzle back and forth on the train, taking it in turns with a friend to enter numbers.

3. A play-for-cash game where you earn a tenner for every correct number, but lose £20 for every box left blank when you quit out.

4. Use Roman numerals instead of numbers, and rename it Sudokus.

5. Power-ups. Y'know, mushrooms or something.

6. Mash up sudoku with Tetris, rotating numbers as you drop them onto the grid.

7. Sudoku tips from Chuck Norris in between levels.

8. Use the little-known JSR-540CK API to deliver an electric shock to player's finger when they get a number wrong.

9. 3D Sudoku, with a swoopy camera zooming in and out of the grid while you ponder your next answer.

10. Sexy Nuts Sudoku, where every time you complete a 3x3 box, it disappears to reveal the flesh of a glamour model. That's Nuts as in the magazine, obviously. Not as in testicle-flaunting male models.

11. Although actually, Testicle-Flaunting Male Model Sudoku isn't such a bad idea.

12. Change all the numbers after a random number of turns, just for fun.

13. Camdoku. To enter a 3 in a box, you have to take a photo of a figure 3 in your current surroundings.

14. Fire-breathing dragon bosses.

15. Multiplayer sudoku, where you can rub out each others' numbers, and swear using the phone's microphone.

16. Sesame Sudoku, where the Count from Sesame Street provides sound effects, counting whenever you enter a number. "Two? Ah-ha-ha..."

17. Mix sudoku with a virtual dog game - just as you're about to complete your grid, a virtual puppy appears, runs off with it, and then poos in the middle of the grid.

18. Stick a '10' in one box at the start of the game, just to mess with people's minds.

19. Have an option to tear up your virtual sudoku grid in a temper when you get 45 minutes into a Hard one only to find you've put two 3s in the same column without realising. The most realistic sudoku game yet!

20. Tiltdoku, using the accelerometer. If you don't hold your phone steady, your numbers slide all over the grid. Endless fun.