Pure Sudoku has a name that speaks for itself. The download is like a virtual collection of Sudoku magazines, organized into “Very Easy”, “Easy”, “Intermediate” and “Difficult” games. Each is named appropriately; if you’ve played Sudoku before, the “Very Easy” mode should take you no time at all, while the “Difficult” mode will have you working for often more than half an hour.

The game’s start menu has an option for “Instructions”, which loosely describes how to play Sudoku, for beginners. It doesn’t give you hints, or really run you through any kind of detailed tutorial. It’s a simple, three-page demonstration of how the board looks and how it should look when you are finished.

Speaking of a lack of help, I did find it rather frustrating that while working on a puzzle, you have the option to press the “Hint” button…and yet it merely pops up to tell you that this is only available in the deluxe edition. Same goes for the “Check It” and, quite more startlingly, the “Save” buttons. That’s right: even in the free edition, you can’t save or load any puzzles you want to come back to later.

There isn’t much dazzle to the game. Despite a scenic picture placed behind the puzzle as background, I feel that a little music could have added to the game, even if it were something soft and instrumental. I did like, however, the way you input numbers. Buying a Sudoku magazine and using a pencil can be tiring, as this is a game of trial and error and much erasing usually has to be done. In Pure Sudoku, it is easy to delete boxes that you’ve placed the wrong number in and it even shows you, by way of lighting up the number in a red tint, when you’ve gotten a duplicate number in a line.

If you’re bored at the office, or at home, and want a quick download (and I mean quick, it downloaded for me in a few seconds) that will make you think, Pure Sudoku isn’t a bad choice. Just don’t expect a visual spectacle.