In my pursuit of that perfect sudoku game on my 5800, I have been mining over Internet for quiet a while now. Just when I was about to give up, I came across this amazing package from Vesuvian Software called Sudoku Soft Touch. Lets see how Sudoku Soft Touch fares on Nokia 5800 and how it compares with Sudoku Master.

Installation

Sudoku Soft Touch can be downloaded for free from this link. Its a zip file and hence you will need a zip manager on your 5800 to directly download on to your phone for installation. The unzipped installation file (.jar) is just 550 kb and installation is pretty easy not requiring more than two clicks for complete installation.

Unlike Sudoku Master, Sudoku Soft touch does have some customizable options like setting the difficulty level before one starts the puzzle:

Once you click on play button, it does take sometime to generate the puzzle and doesn't load instantaneously as in Sudoku Master:

To enter a number, we just have to click on the slot we want to fill and tap on the number to be entered from the list below the puzzle. This mode of entry is somewhat difficult to use for finger touch play as the icons for numbers are really small. You really need tiny fingers to accurately click on the number of your choice. Many a times I was tapping on two numbers simultaneously:

In this aspect, Sudoku Master was much better, for the number entry was much easier to operate with finger touch. With Sudoku Soft touch, you will be forced to use the stylus or your nails for smoother game play.

Feel like you went wrong somewhere and have no idea to check on it, click on the check for errors tab just below the puzzle to check for errors:

Please note that this error check treats unfilled slots as errors, so the actual number or errors is much smaller. If you are not able to solve the puzzle, there is also a solve puzzle button, which will solve the whole puzzle and you can check where you went wrong:

It should be noted that the difference between check and solve is that check will just report the number of errors where as solve will solve the puzzle and also report the number of errors.

Unfortunately, soft touch doesnt work in landscape mode as you can only see a part of the puzzle on screen in this mode:

Now lets compare some aspects of Sudoku Master and Sudoku soft touch:

It can be seen that aesthetics is much better for the Sudoku Masters with 3d like slots and preferentially colored boxes. Now lets compare data entry:

As mentioned earlier, number entry is much easier in Sudoku Master. Comparing the two in landscape mode brings the most glaring faux in Soft touch:

Pros

1. Better game play options like setting difficulty level, check for errors and solve
2. Fast to load and light on battery
3. Number entry doesn't hog precious board space like in Sudoku Master

Cons:

1. No landscape mode support
2. Timer not visible
3. Number entry not optimized for finger touch operation
4. Takes sometime to generate the puzzle

Verdict

Sudoku Soft touch is a better sudoku package of the two because soft touch has more puzzles and even has the option of setting the difficulty level. Sudoku Master is a well finished product but lacks the main core which is the puzzle with only three games, sudoku players will get bored of Sudoku master in a matter of minutes. If you are a fan of Sudoku, Sudoku soft touch is a must on your 5800. By the way, I did manage to solve the puzzle several times and on an average I clocked 500 s for almost all the difficulty levels. Not sure whether my solving skills improved or the difficulty levels are just for name sake . Finally, thanks to Versuvian for bringing this game on to our 5800s.

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