Global Star Sudoku Fever (GBA)
Global Star Sudoku Fever, also known simply as Sudoku Fever, isn’t really a special sudoku game. The Global Star part of the title doesn’t refer to some respected sudoku maker, Global Star Software is just a game publisher that had many games under its belt but not really much respect or renown for it. In fact, this seems to be their first title to feature sudoku, but luckily for them, it’s a puzzle format that is fairly easy to pull off, and simply executing it properly would likely please most people who saw a Game Boy Advance sudoku game sitting on the shelf.
Global Star Sudoku Fever isn’t trying to reinvent its puzzle format of choice nor does it aim to introduce any unusual gimmicks. The number placement puzzles featured here are played in the typical fashion in its Sudoku Classic mode. Players are presented with a nine by nine grid with a few spaces already having numbers filled in to serve as clues. To complete a sudoku you must have each row contain the numbers 1 through 9 and each column have the numbers 1 through 9 as well, but no repeats are allowed within those rows or columns. Through the process of elimination you’ll be able to use the already present numbers to figure out the placement of the other numbers, but there’s one more consideration to help with this logic puzzle. The nine by nine grid is also split into smaller three by three blocks of squares. These also must contain the numbers 1 through 9 without any repeats, this extra complication actually helping the player better whittle down where certain numbers can be placed to fit within the conditions. While sudoku puzzles are often found in a newspaper as a relatively challenging way to keep your mind sharp, they are just one puzzle a day with their solutions sometimes even needing you to get the next paper to confirm if you got it right. Global Star Sudoku Fever though at least offers essentially endless sudokus to try so long as you bring your Game Boy Advance with you, but beyond the Sudoku Classic mode which can present a unique grid at various difficulty levels each time you play, there are a few other options to make this video game a little more robust.
On the main menu you’ll find other modes like Sudoku Junior, Sudoku Mini, Sudoku Eight, and Sudoku Solver. The first three modes all change the size of the grid, Sudoku Junior being a four by four grid, Sudoku Mini is six by six, and Sudoku Eight provides a barely smaller eight by eight arrangement. Each mode adjusts how many numbers are in play as well, so for example Sudoku Junior only needs the numbers 1 through 4 to fill each row, column, and box. Global Star Sudoku Fever provides just as many possible sudoku puzzles for these extra modes although of course with the caveat that smaller grids won’t have as many unique puzzle possibilities, but it can also be an easy way for a sudoku novice to acquaint themselves with the concept or a more relaxing and quick sudoku option for an expert. Oddly enough there aren’t as many difficulty levels across the different modes though, although it is harder to conceive of a four by four grid that would be incredibly difficult to solve while also providing enough clues to be solvable.
Sudoku Solver isn’t quite a mode meant to be played like the others though. Instead, it’s almost more of a cheat sheet for other sudoku puzzles. Sudoku Solver will have you fill in the numbers on an empty grid and then when you click solve it will rather quickly determine the solution and present it to you. If you want to cross reference your results with a pen and paper sudoku whose solution might not be available this is a nifty tool, and if you want to make your own sudoku for someone else to try you can get yourself an answer key. However, Sudoku Fever will be able to solve a puzzle even with only one digit on the board, and many sudoku puzzles that provide only a few numbers can actually have multiple solutions, so it’s not a perfect tool if only because of the design of the logic puzzle itself. It’s a nifty tool regardless and it does at least present a possible solution to any possible puzzle layout, but it’s probably more of a novelty with the internet and similar sudoku solvers now more easily available.
During the four modes focused on sudoku solving yourself though, the game keeps things pretty simple. The music playing is fairly repetitive but not obnoxious and volume in general isn’t really required so you can turn it off if it does get bothersome. Behind the grids will be a simple scene you can switch to have different backgrounds like a tropical beach, the Statue of Liberty, or an autumnal scene that mostly avoid clashing with the number grid overlay. You can swap the numbers into colored symbols or letters as well if you want to make things a little harder, the rules not shifting since there is no math involved in solving a sudoku. There are more meaningful settings to be found in a drop down start menu that oddly enough looks more like something you’d find in a computer program. From this menu you’ll find options like the ability to instantly solve a puzzle if you give up or the less drastic ability to reveal what number goes in the square you’re currently highlighting if you need a little bump in the right direction. You can save your progress on the current sudoku puzzle and come back to it even after the game has been turned off, and there’s even an option you can enable that imitates a habit many sudoku fans have of penciling in possible numbers for a space. This “pencil marks” mode here is represented by a box near the bottom right that shows all potential numbers for a highlighted space if enabled and is perhaps more of a hint system than a progress tracking aid due to its integration. You can also enable the very helpful Error Highlight for a less drastic bump in the right direction since it will only highlight a misplaced number if you could reasonably figure out it was misplaced yourself to avoid the player just guessing and checking. These are perhaps the basics when it comes to expected settings for digital sudoku but are still fine little options to toggle, Global Star Sudoku Fever at least ensuring you’ll get what you came for if you decided to bring it home.
THE VERDICT: Global Star Sudoku Fever offers pretty basic sudoku but with a few different grid sizes and some expected helpful options, and that’s probably all it aimed to do. It offers functionally thousands of sudoku puzzles and even a sudoku solver if you want to check if you got a physical one right, so even though its limited music and basic presentation don’t add anything, you’re still getting a way to play a new sudoku any time you want . It’s a sudoku video game and that’s about it, offering that simplicity a more casual fan of the puzzle format would want but not really doing anything to draw you in if you want something more creative.
And so, I give Global Star Sudoku Fever for Game Boy Advance…
An OKAY rating. Perhaps releasing a sudoku game for the Game Boy Advance two years after the DS had been released and offered the more tactile touch screen for filling out a sudoku wasn’t the best business decision. Perhaps a game like Global Star Sudoku Fever loses its main appeal since time brought us a way to play an essentially endless amount of sudoku puzzle layouts on the go much easier and cheaper with smartphones. Without any unique appeals, this game is very much the kind that disappears into the past since you are just picking up a virtual way to play sudoku without any frills that could make it a truly unique experience worth seeking out. Still, sudoku grids are a simple and fun way to keep the mind sharp and interesting for people who enjoy logic puzzles. There are enough different modes here and potential layouts that you aren’t going to run out of sudoku to play, and the extra options both in grid size and ways to get hints mean it can be a bit more accessible than a game that only provided you a bunch of nine by nine typical sudoku puzzles. It hardly feels like it deserves a name with “fever” in it considering how tame the presentation and offerings are, but Global Star Sudoku Fever manages to avoid any strong emotions since it does offer a fairly standard way to play a pretty popular puzzle format.
If Global Star Sudoku Fever is your only way to play sudoku, it does its job. If you have a computer or phone with internet nearby though, you pretty much don’t need this Game Boy Advance game. Still, the only thing to really fault is how safe and basic the overall presentation and design is. The music could have been given more attention, perhaps some flashy effects to add a little more excitement to doing the puzzles, or the game could have even tried to cook up something new or lesser seen than just a few grid sizes and options that help you know if you’re filling in spaces correctly. In some ways it is destined to be like those little books collecting a bunch of sudoku puzzles, the format making them inferior than other options but perhaps the way some people will still choose to do it for one reason or another. It’s less likely Global Star Sudoku Fever will find as many people willing to still use it for their sudoku fix than a book, but if you do find yourself playing it somehow, it still has perfectly decent sudoku to offer.