Interesting ideas don’t always lead to satisfying Sudoku

I let Dicember be an excuse to go through my Roll and Write files and look for odds and ends. That’s how I ended up playing Dicedoku.

Yeah, it’s a Sudoku as a dice game. It’s not even the first time I’ve seen that (we will get back to that)

Like other games like it, it uses two by three boxes to form the collection of grids because you are only using six numbers. And it’s a two X three grid of those boxes so it’s a six by six larger grid.

And, yeah, if that doesn’t make sense, it will with one glance at the board.  

Here’s the clever bit. Each turn, five dice get rolled. You use one of them to select a Tetris shape. Then, you make that shape with the other four numbers and put that number-shape into the grid.

I’ve seen similar mechanics. Mosaix, which is from 2009, has a similar idea. But I can’t think of seeing this exact mechanic before. And I do think it is interesting. 

Unfortunately, I found the actual game to be mildly annoying and I kept wishing the mechanic had been put to a more interesting use. It wasn’t the worst game I learned for Dicember 2024 but I can’t say I want to play it more.

A year or so ago, I learned Sudoku Rush, which is speed sudoku. The idea isn’t as clever but the execution is more fun. The fact that I can say that isn’t good for Diceduko.

Diceduko has an interesting core mechanic but applying to Sudoku just makes me want to do regular Sudoku puzzles.

You already know what Sudoku Rush is about

When I looked at Sudoku Rush, the first question that I had to ask myself was ‘Why wasn’t this already a game?’

Seriously. It’s a speed Sudoku game that uses six-sided dice. It’s such a simple idea that it feels like it should be obvious. It probably takes half a minute to learn. You have probably figured out the rules already.

You’ve got a six-by-six grid that’s broken down into nine four-by-four boxes. Everyone has their own three dice. No turns. Roll dice. Either write down all three numbers or none of them. Repeat.

In a multi-player game, the game ends when someone calls time, either because they’ve filled their grid or they feel their grid is as good as it’s going to get. In a solitaire game, you set a timer.

You get two points for each row or column that doesn’t have a duplicate  number. You get one point for each block that don’t have a duplicate number. High score wins or try to bear your best score.

I first looked at the game back in 2019 when it was part of the first BGG Roll and Write Design contest. I finally tried it out now. And, both times, it seemed like such a simple, obvious idea. It did get second place in the contest, which does mean simple and obvious can mean very playable.

Honestly, for me, Sudoku Rush isn’t a great game. In fact, the gimmick of the game being real time is what saves it for me. The time pressure makes the game engaging, enough for me to think about keeping the game in rotation.

That said, there’s definitely an audience for Sudoku Rush. The concept makes sense, the mechanics work and you know if you want in from the title alone.

Sudoku Rush is beyond dedicated to being exactly what it says on the tin. It’s a game where the fact that it takes less than five minutes isn’t a feature, it’s the whole point.