Review:
Kakuro Mania (by Boyen Kolev) for the iPhone/iPod touch

Let me lay it out, right from the top.

I don’t like mathematics. I don’t like anything to do with numbers. My mother is a high school math teacher, and my whole life people have assumed I would be good at math. What, like it’s genetic, or something? But for whatever reason, math it not only my least favourite subject, it has the ability to make me feel nauseous even thinking about it.

So there we go. That’s my baseline. I’m not good with numbers. I don’t like numbers.

However… I’m not averse to learning about numbers, and I have even been known to enjoy one or two suduko puzzles. The key phrase there is “one or two”. But what I do like to do is exercise my neurons, so even though it’s been described as the numerical equivalent of a crossword, I ain’t afraid of a little Kakuro Mania.

Boyan Kolev’s game app for the iPhone and iPod touch will look very familiar to afficiandos of kakuro, presenting a simple puzzle grid in any one of six sizes from 5 x 5 to 10 x 10. It’s very plain to look at, being the electronic equivalent of a newspaper puzzle, and you have the option of filling in the squares either in “pen” or “pencil” - the latter being temporary notes in the blank squares while you work the puzzle out.

Herein lies the problem. As I said, I’m happy to give kakuro a try, even though I’ve never done a puzzle before. But this game has no instructions. Nothing. No intro, no tutorial, no tips, zip. There is a hint button, which provides a variety of options, and with time and effort I could probably use the cell-solver to work out the pattern and learn how to play kakuro. However, when my mathematically impaired mind couldn’t figure out what on Earth was going on, I had to give the game up and spend a frustrating few minutes trawling the internet for a kakuro tutorial. Which should have been in the iPhone app in the first place!

For seasoned kakuro-heads, I’m sure this app is perfectly servicable, but it’s the total disregard for newcomers to kakuro that ultimately infuriated me.

There are a lot of kakuro games on the App Store. A lot are free. Kakuro Mania - a basic version with no instructions or tutorials - will set you back £1.79/US$1.99. And you don’t need to be a mathematical wizard to work out that that is not a good deal, at all.