In case some of you are having a hard time solving a specific Sudoku grid, then you might want to check out homebrew game Soduky from French coder Bobiwan. The creation is currently on version 1 beta.

One of its main functions is that it provides users with all the possible answers to any Sudoku grid. Know more after the jump!

Download: Soduky v1 (beta)

Homebrew developer Alex has released PuzzleManiak v3.1 for the Nintendo DS. For those unfamiliar with this application, it is a partial port of Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection for the Nintendo DS.

It contains 27 different puzzle games such as Sudoku, Pattern (Picross), and Mastermind. This latest version reinstates the hall of fame feature which displays the global rankings for players and fixes some of the bugs that were found in version 3.0. More information and the download link can be found in the full article.

  

For all of you puzzle-craving aficionados, you'll be happy to know that the partial port of Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection series has released the latest version 3.0 beta 1 for the Nintendo DS. Even though its been a while since our last update on the game, the new beta version still includes the nine all-time favorite puzzle games (Tents, Dimonosa, Mines, Bridges, Light Up, Pattern, Net, Untangle, and Sudoku), with a few new features put in for added customization.

The biggest improvement of this ported puzzle series is its ability to support mp3 files while playing. To help manage your music files, the game also allows you to create your own player profiles, which allow you to customize your name, the mp3 folder, your favorite text color, your favorite language and your background theme.

Once the selected mp3 folder is set, it plays all the files in a queue and repeats itself when the last song is done. While you can only have one playlist, and no options for random shuffling of songs, perhaps these are possible updates that the developers could look into the future.

As always, take care when installing this homebrew especially since this is the beta version. If you're interested in downloading this brain-teasing homebrew, you can get it from the download link we've provided below.

Download: PuzzleManiak v3.0 beta 1

People whose brains are feeling a wee bit lethargic due to the recent summer vacation may want to check out Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day for the DS. This brain stimulator is now available in video game stores and should save save many a lazy gamer's brains from feeling too sluggish during classes.

"The point of the original Brain Age was to jolt users' brains out of complacency by challenging them with a variety of fun activities," Said George Harrison, senior vice president of Nintendo's marketing and corporate communications.

Brain Age 2 now features 15 modes including simple exercises such as repeated subtractions, unscrambling letters to form words, and playing on a virtual piano among many other activities (many of them not seen in the previous game). Sudoku puzzles are also packed in Brain Age 2, just enough to jump start lazy minds.

If you happen to notice that kids younger than your age are smarter than you, then it's a good idea to plonk down a few dollars for this title. If you can afford a few more, then get that snazzy yin-yang themed DS along with Brain Age 2 as well.

Got room for another cranial homebrew game on your DS? If that answer is a resounding yes, we're letting the NDS community know that PuzzleManiak v1.5 is now in circulation, ready to be loaded into your card.

Not sure what to expect? This partial port of Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection carries nine puzzle games in its database (Tents, Dominosa, Mines, Bridges, Light Up, Pattern, Net, Untangle, Sudoku), with an integrated "copy/paste" mode being added to the last game. Here are the directions to using this new mode:

1. When clicking on the top right icon, the "copy" mode is activated: Sudoku Copy Mode
2. Next time, you’ll click a square the value inside it will be copied.
3. Then, the "paste" mode is automatically activated: Sudoku Paste Mode
4. Then, all your following clicks on the grid will paste the value you copied to the clicked square.
5. You can also "copy" an empty square, thus you’ll delete all clicked squares.
   

Other major updates included in v1.5 are a graphics fix for untangle, and the addition of WiFi support. Enjoy the game, but don't forget to view the file readme for extra usage details.

Download: PuzzleManiak v1.5

The multi-million selling Brain Training series continues with More Brain Training From Dr. Kawashima: How Old Is Your Brain?, the second installment in the franchise. Featuring all new exercises and DS Brain Age Checks, this is set to challenge even the most trained brains as it launches across Europe late next month.

More Brain Training From Dr. Kawashima: How Old Is Your Brain? uses the same format as its predecessor. The game is held like a book and players use the touch screen and microphone features of the Nintendo DS. The popular numbers game Sudoku also makes a return in this new title.

The DS Brain Age Checks take on a new form in this title as players are tested on three randomly selected exercises such as old school classic Rock, Paper, Scissors which asks you to name the position to either win or lose against the object shown and Speedy Symbols which challenges your memory of symbols associated with specific numbers.

More Brain Training From Dr. Kawashima: How Old Is Your Brain? launches in Europe on June 29 for a suggested retail price of around €30 (GBP 20, US$ 41).

Where else can you play Sudoku with a martial arts twist? The best part is, it's going to the handhelds - PSP and DS. Zendoku promises some pretty interesting (albeit mind bending) gameplay.

Zendoku from Zoonami and Eidos looks fun and will definitely give players' gray matters working overtime. The minigames and the puzzles themselves look challenging. The characters are varied from the samurai Musashi, the Kendo master Sakura, the sumo wrestler Yatta, fencer Lorraine, the ninja Kingkage and the others. The trailers also show the training mode with the master. The classic Sudoku game is also in attendance, along with the game's grid game of symbols instead.

There hasn't been any official announcements as to Zendoku's release, but it was said to expect it this year. Might as well check out the screens and trailers while you're waiting. Enjoy!

Some more videos and a whole lot of screens at Full Article!

Zendoku for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) and Nintendo DS (DS), simply put, is a logic-based puzzle game Sudoku with a karate twist. It's not hard at all to understand but what's curious is the idea behind this game. Gaming site Pocket Gamer recently sat down with game developer Martin Hollis to find out once and for all.

Hollis, at the beginning of the interview, jokingly mentioned that Sudoku needs ninjas and that's all the explanation the fans will ever need. And then he commented that it is Zoonami Ltd.'s priority to come up with good and unique video games. He admitted that there were a lot of bumps along the way and the title wasn't really intended for the handhelds. Hollis remarked,

We've made a large number of game prototypes on a variety of platforms and learned a lot along the way, but unfortunately struggled to find development deals that were right for us. With Zendoku, we didn't decide specifically to make a DS or a PSP game. The important thing for us is to make a good game and choose the right platform for it.

And we believe that it has all the potential to become a great game. Instead of numbers, players will be matching up colorful symbols in Zendoku. Aside from the puzzle game, there are various characters available with his own unique graphics, themes and storylines.

"Every time you complete a row, column, or 3x3 box on the sudoku grid, you launch an attack on your opponent. You also launch an attack when you fill in all nine of one symbol," Martin Hollis explains. Speaking of attacks, take note that these can be blocked provided that your character's lucky symbol is quickly placed on the grid.

Aside from the head-to-head combat, there is also a single player mode where everything is the same except the your opponent now is time. Accordingly, placing the lucky symbols on the grid will stop the clock momentarily. Even though Zendoku wasn't originally planned for the handhelds, Martin Hollis believes that it is a match made in heaven,

Zendoku is perfect for DS because it's a vibrant, colourful, fun Nintendo-style game. The sudoku gameplay is perfect for the stylus and the attacks are more fun on the DS with a stylus than without. Equally, we feel PSP definitely needs more fun, casual games that are pick-up-and-play, so we've developed another version of Zendoku especially for it.

In line with its preparations for releasing its Zendoku game for the PSP and DS this year, Eidos Interactive has set up a web site containing information players will want to know before they start playing the game. The Zendoku site will carry game-centric goodies like details on gameplay tutorials, gameplay modes, character biographies, and also carries media trinkets like downloadable wallpapers, character art, and a gameplay trailer to give people an idea of how Zendoku's action handles.

Unfortunately, the site's unavailable at the moment (site maintenance, apparently), although we're more than happy to explain what the game's all about. Zendoku is a Sudoku-based puzzle action game developed by Zoonami.

Instead of using numbers, however, Zendoku instead uses symbols and icons, along with a light-hearted martial arts theme (the name Musashi should have given that away...) to give gamers a comical and fun atmosphere to play in. Slap on the multiplayer feature, and you can imagine why the PSP and DS owners on our side are getting excited as well. If that wasn't quite enough information for you guys, we also have some screenshots for both PSP and DS versions of the game down below. Happy viewing!

The rest of Zendoku's DS screenshots at full article.

The DS-X team has just released a new software and hardware update for their DS-Xtreme flashcart product. This flashcart is the most powerful cart on the market, boosting capabilities greater than that of the NDS itself, but a a higher price-point than its competitors. This new update v1.10 (software) comes with several wanted changes, one of the most noticeable the second you boot up is the new skin. I was unable to test/use this update myself due to a few technical problems on my part. However the public response to this update seems to be generally good, especially in the area of the new skin and something called "skinapps".

Skinapps are programs and games that utilize the built-in skinning engine of the DS-Xtreme to create DS-Xtreme-specific applications and games. Sudoku, Pwng and a Calculator application have all been bundled with this latest update for you to try out immediately. The various other changes in this update include -

• Multiple skin selection/support (Holding B during startup forces system backup skin to be loaded)
• Entirely new skin!
• Scroll-bar widget
• New loading and top screen
• Cosmetic change to App loading transition
• Previous (1.0.x) skin is now available as "OS10"
• "Preset" directories searching option
• "SkinApps" Skin engine based applications support
• Sudoku, Pwng, and Calculator examples
• Instant boot MBR handling bug fixed
• Instant boot LED handling bug fixed
• Better eeprom emulation mode detection
• Fixed an issue with graphics engine display quality (line skipping)
• Dpad release events are now properly placed into event queue

Note: If you experience an error that says "Update Error -1" - Read this and be sure to follow all instructions listed here.

Download: [DS-Xtreme Updater for 1.10 (PC only) + Public Partition Files]

Buy: [DS-Xtreme (DS-X) 4Gb (512MB) All-In-One Flash Storage Solution]