Starlight X-2: Space Sudoku

[b]starlight x-2[/b] didn't really catch my attention around release, I acknowledged its existence and that was that. then I decided to try the demo anyway, and after only 5 very short levels, before even finishing the tutorial, I clicked the [i]add to cart[/i] button, as it made a wonderful first impression. in a nutshell, it's a [b]sudoku-like in space[/b] with the core elements of planets, stars, light beams emitted by the stars, and asteroids. planets have to be illuminated, but only from certain directions, stars can help with that, while asteroids block light beams. the rule is: [b]there can be only one asteroid and star in any given row or column[/b]. so yeah, sudoku. and no guessing, of course. 11 level packs, each with 50 levels, so [b]550 regular levels, all available from the start[/b], but it's best to follow some sort of order for a smoother difficulty curve. there are also [b]daily packs of 50 levels[/b] for endless entertainment, and there's a bit of an archive, [b]14 ...

I enjoyed playing this on my Android. I'm happy to see it's now available on Steam. It features an infinite constellation of logic puzzles. Innovative cerebral entertainment for your coffee break. With a jolt of caffeine for your brain. Try the free demo.

This is more a mixed review than a negative one. I like the concept of working with two different sets of logic (stars and asteroids) to unravel puzzles, but typically the initial array of planets gives you so much upfront information that you can immediately fill in most of the grid with rote, simple deductions. Sometimes in medium difficulty puzzles and [i]rarely[/i] in easy puzzles I wound up with a 50/50 on a single pair of stars but even then that was easily resolved by then filling in all the rote asteroid information. In the larger-size hard puzzles I found myself switching between star and asteroid logic more often, and sometimes I had more than just a single 50/50 to resolve at the end, both of which I appreciated, but ultimately it still felt like filling in most of the grid did not require much [i]insight[/i], which was disappointing. In larger grids it was also easier to overlook something obvious, especially with all of the light beams filling up rows and columns, but th...

A solid, sudoku-descended deductive puzzler with tons of levels of varying sizes and difficulties. Runs great on Linux.

This is a decent paper-puzzle-ish game with a solid UI and an initially atrocious title. It was eventually renamed to "Starlight X-2: Space Sudoku", which is a bit better. Gameplay This is essentially a paper-puzzle-like experience with a neat presentation. There are 550 levels, plus infinitely more levels, albeit all auto-generated. That means they're all interchangeable, which makes the idea of completing any level set more daunting and less appealing. Unfortunately, that's the main motivation one has in such games, so that made it harder to stay interested. In addition, I didn't find difficult puzzles particularly interesting to solve. Similar to randomly generated Sudoku puzzles, you just follow a rote algorithm step by step, irrespective of level size. The core puzzle idea is decent for paper puzzles. I don't mean that as criticism; I like lots of paper puzzles, like Slither Link. But when I see 550 levels and know that there won't be any new mechanics, I wonder why this was so...

Sudoku... in space!!!