Kakuro Puzzles In The Modern Setting

Kakuro puzzles are considered by some as the harder version of its more famous partner, the Sudoku puzzles. Kakuro puzzles are also considered by puzzles enthusiasts as modified versions of crossword puzzles, where numbers, instead of words, are used.Actually, Kakuro puzzles have several similarities to the typical crossword puzzle. For one, the grid in a Kakuro very much resembles the grid used in American crossword puzzle. Also, in a crossword game, a clue is provided but its correct answer is limited to the number of squares provided by the game as well as by the intersecting answers. This is very much the same thing with Kakuro, where a player must find the two single digits that will add up to a specific value but must be limited to the number of squares provided as well as on the intersecting sums.

Note must also be given to the fact that in a Kakuro game, no sum should contain the same digit twice.Kakuro puzzles, more commonly referred as Cross Sum in its early days of development, are not entirely new. They have enjoyed tremendous as well as continuous popularity in Japan since 1986. However, the awareness of the game's existence, especially in the United States and in many parts of the Western world, has risen only very recently. In this regard, it does not come as a big surprise to see major websites nowadays taking advantage of the puzzle's growing popularity by dedicating their page or pages to Kakuro in the past month or so. Blogs that discuss Kakuro techniques and solutions are also increasing by leaps and bounds.

The latest news about the Kakuro puzzles is that Conceptis Puzzles, the world leader in the international logic puzzles market, has launched last February a modern version of the puzzle game, which it appropriately called Conceptis Kakuro. The puzzle company has secured the services of King Features to handle the syndication of the game to daily newspapers all around the world. In addition, Conceptis is also set to release several Kakuro magazines and books in the coming months in cooperation with several international publishing houses.Conceptis Puzzles said its version of the Kakuro puzzles involved the use of correlation algorithm to make the puzzle really easy, so that the greatest number of people possible can get to enjoy playing the game to the maximum. The Kakuro algorithm creates in the game one starting point in each one of the four blocks, and makes sure that conflicts do not emerge when players begin to solve the puzzle all the way to its logical conclusion.Kakuro puzzles, Conceptis style, are reported to be available in six different levels, ranging from the very easy to the extremely difficult.

They also come in different sizes such as the 8 by 8, the 10 by 10, the 12 by 12, the 14 by 14, just to name a few. This makes the Kakuro puzzles of Conceptis more fun and exciting to solve and a perfect fixture in many newspapers as well as books in any part of the world.

By: Earl Talbot