Games Like Sudoku: Queens and 5 Other Logic Puzzles Worth Trying
Finished your sudoku? Six logic puzzles with the same pure-deduction feel: Queens, nonograms, kakuro, killer sudoku, futoshiki and tents, with the rules of each.
What makes sudoku satisfying is not the numbers. It is that every puzzle has exactly one solution and you can reach it by reasoning alone, never by guessing. These six puzzles share that quality.
1. Queens
The board is split into colored regions. Place one crown in every row, every column and every region, and no two crowns may touch, not even diagonally. There are no numbers at all, so a board reads at a glance, and a small one takes a minute or two. It is the same family as Star Battle.
2. Nonogram
Numbers beside each row and above each column give the lengths of the filled blocks in that line, in order. Fill the right cells and a small picture appears.
3. Kakuro
A crossword made of sums. Each run of white cells must add up to the clue next to it, using the digits 1 to 9 without repeating a digit inside a run.
4. Killer sudoku
Ordinary sudoku rules, but instead of given digits the grid is divided into cages. The digits in a cage add up to its small number, and a digit cannot repeat inside a cage.
5. Futoshiki
Fill the grid so every row and column holds each number once, like a small sudoku without boxes, while obeying the greater-than and less-than signs between cells.
6. Tents
Every tree on the grid needs one tent in a cell next to it. Tents may not touch each other, not even diagonally, and the numbers at the edges say how many tents each row and column holds.
Where to start
If you want something quicker than sudoku, start with Queens: the rules fit in one sentence and the first boards are solved in a minute. Crownly has a new Queens puzzle every day and 6,500 levels, and when you are stuck its hints explain the reasoning instead of just showing the answer.
Play a new Queens puzzle every day
Crownly: three daily logic puzzles, live duels, 6,500 levels and hints that explain the logic. Free on iPhone and iPad.
Download on the App Store