At first glance, I thought the Mac game, Sudoku Latin Squares, had a Latin American flair to it. I don’t think this is far-fetched since there are so many Asian, Mayan, Hawaiian themed games out there. So naturally I waited for the fiesta-like screen or music to show up. It didn’t appear. Upon further investigation, I learned that the term Latin squares referred to a mathematical grid which one developer used Latin characters as symbols for experiments. Sudoku is a form of Latin squares. Who knew? Ok, ok, all you math geeks out there knew.

In any event, Sudoku Latin Squares is a very fun play. It consists of 2 games in one. One is the Latin Squares with various game fields and 4 difficulty levels, and the other is the familiar Sudoku 9 x 9 grid.  Latin Squares’ columns and rows contain numbers with 1 through how many squares in the columns and rows. Also each colored section must have numbers 1 through how many squares with the same color with no number repeating in each section, just like Sudoku. Latin Squares’ easy level starts with 3 columns and 3 rows with 3 colored areas. The columns and rows and colors increase as the difficulty level increases. By starting out at the easy level you quickly learn the game, and for beginners this is an ideal way to learn. Of course, once you get the hang of this game the easy levels are not challenging, and you must go on to the more difficult levels for enjoyment and excitement.

You play Sudoku exactly the way you would play the newspaper or book games. It has just one game field with 4 difficulty levels. Click on numbers to fill in the squares , and complete the grid by placing in each row, column, and 3 by 3 box numbers from 1 through 9 without using a number more than once.

Both of these games, Latin Squares and Sudoku, will offer hours of entertainment in addition to working your mental fitness. I liked the grid size, clarity, and layout of these games. Some extra features also helped make my play a little more pleasant and easier. The Auto hints button puts in each blank square all the possible numbers. I used this feature since my right click button was not working properly and didn’t want to use the control-click button to access the numbers. The numbers were all in the same location in each box. This is really helpful so you can quickly scan the columns and rows. Another neat feature was the print button for all those who like to write out your Sudokus (I’m one of them). I’ve never found Mac games to have interesting music, but I didn’t mind the music for once. If you do not like it, you can always turn it off or use itunes.

I imagine in future generations of the game, the screens will be more advanced with larger grids and more variety of patterns and colors, but in the meantime, this Sudoku Latin Squares is a clever twist to the standard Sudoku game. Do your brain a favor and try this mentally challenging game while having fun at the same time.

Features of Sudoku Latin Squares:
-2 great games – Sudoku and Latin Squares
-hints, undos and saves
-print feature
-mark squares with notes
-auto notes

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars