Kidoku – Sudoku for Kids is Perfect For Developing Puzzle Skills

It goes without saying that children who play puzzle games from an early age tend to pick up valuable problem-solving skills faster than those who don’t. Kidoku – Sudoku for Kids is a wonderful puzzle game that puts a new twist on an old classic. Instead of playing with numbers, children interact with animals on the screen to complete sudoku puzzles.

Developed by Chao-Hsin Shih, Kidoku is based on the same rules as regular sudoku and luckily there’s a tutorial available on the main menu of the game (accessed by tapping on the animal with the question mark).

In case you’re unfamiliar, the basics of sudoku are that each row, column, and region of the grid must only contain one kind of animal. It will take a bit of practice before you get the basics of the controls down, but once you’ve tinkered with it a bit it shouldn’t be too challenging to demonstrate to a child.

As you can imagine, puzzles are pretty easy to complete at lower levels when you’re starting on a 2×2 grid (so the level is completed as long as all animals are different), but this can become significantly more challenging as the grid size increases.

I’ll be completely honest in saying that learning how to play will likely be a lesson in patience, but Kudoku is definitely worth learning how to play.

I can see how Kidoku can quickly become addicting for children who enjoy playing it, which is why the developer included over 60 levels to complete. Even if your child masters the basics of Kidoku, you can increase the challenge factor by disabling animal mode in the game’s settings menu.

Kidoku features gorgeous graphics and animations thanks to being developed on the Unity platform. Cute animals are sure to get younger players hooked and parents will appreciate the simplicity of the game.

It’s also worth noting that Kidoku doesn’t require online access of any kind, which helpful not only for keeping kids entertained, but for protecting their privacy and your device while they play the game.

Kidoku does include in-app purchases but the menu for purchasing additional hints is protected by a simple math problem (such as adding or subtracting large numbers).

While these equations shouldn’t be too easy for younger children to solve, this is still something for parents to be aware of in case purchases aren’t restricted on your device. In-app purchases include hint packs and the ability to unlock all levels for $7.99.

Overall, Kidoku is a wonderful puzzle game for children. This is especially true if they’re old enough to be able to grasp the basic concept of sudoku. I really like the fact that the developer opted to include numbers as well as animals so older children can still practice puzzle solving skills without having to move to another game.

Kidoku – Sudoku for Kids requires iOS 11 or later and is available to download on iPhone, iPad, and Mac devices.

A small administrative fee was paid by the developer for publication of this review, which did not influence the reviewer’s opinion