Interesting Facts

Kakuro puzzles resemble crosswords which use numbers instead of words. The aim of the game is to fill all the blank squares in the grid with only the numbers 1-9 so that the numbers you enter add up to the corresponding clues. When the grid is filled, the puzzle is complete. Sometimes called "Cross-sums" or "Kakro", Kakuro is Sudoku's bigger (and harder) brother.

Kakuro puzzle grids can be any size, though usually the squares within them have to be arranged symmetrically. As a rule of thumb, the more blank squares a puzzle contains, the harder it is, however this isn't always true, especially if it is a good quality puzzle.

NOTE: It is very important to note that a proper Kakuro puzzle has only 1 unique solution, and it will always have a logical way of reaching it, there should be no guesswork needed.



An easy Kakuro puzzle



Solution for the above puzzle

In discussing Kakuro puzzles and tactics, the typical shorthand for referring to an entry is "(clue, in numerals)-in-(number of cells in entry, spelled out)", such as "16-in-two" and "25-in-five". The exception is what would otherwise be called the "45-in-nine" — simply "45" is used, since the "-in-nine" is mathematically implied (nine cells is the longest possible entry, and since it cannot duplicate a digit it must consist of all the digits from 1 to 9 once). Curiously, "3-in-two", "4-in-two", "5-in-two", "43-in-eight", and "44-in-eight" are still frequently called as such, despite the "-in-two" and "-in-eight" being equally implied.

Solving techniques

Although brute-force guessing is of course possible, a better weapon is the understanding of the various combinatorial forms that entries can take for various pairings of clues and entry lengths. Those entries with sufficiently large or small clues for their length will have fewer possible combinations to consider, and by comparing them with entries that cross them, the proper permutation — or part of it — can be derived. The simplest example is where a 3-in-two crosses a 4-in-two: the 3-in-two must consist of '1' and '2' in some order; the 4-in-two (since '2' cannot be duplicated) must consist of '1' and '3' in some order. Therefore, their intersection must be '1', the only digit they have in common.

It is common practice to mark potential values for cells in the cell corners until all but one have been proven impossible; for particularly challenging puzzles, sometimes entire ranges of values for cells are noted by solvers in the hope of eventually finding sufficient constraints to those ranges from crossing entries to be able to narrow the ranges to single values. Because of space constraints, instead of digits some solvers use a positional notation, where a potential numerical value is represented by a mark in a particular part of the cell, which makes it easy to place several potential values into a single cell. This also makes it easier to distinguish potential values from solution values.

I find this game to be more interesting than Su-do-ku. I had never been interested in Su-do-ku though I like number puzzles in general! This game is a perfect replacement to Su-do-ku!

You can play this game online at http://www.kakuro.com/playonline.php



My First Kakuro puzzle (Took 19 minutes 32 seconds to solve this puzzle!)

Fantastic Contraption is an addictive puzzle game. The laws of physics apply in the game. To win the game you must get a designated piece into the designated goal area. To accomplish this you have to build contraptions. Your building blocks for your contraptions are, three distinct balls with five potential connecting points (top, right, bottom, left, middle)and two types of connectors. One ball rolls right, another rolls left, and the last does not move under its own power. The difference between the connectors is one is solid and the other allows some things to pass through it. If you get stuck or just want to see how other people beat the level, you can see what other people made available and even modify them.

The game is free, but if you want to design your own levels or play other people's levels you have to pay $10. Even without paying, you can share your designs with other people easily through a designated URL. You do need to register for a free account to save or get a URL so you can send the link to your friends.

I have embedded the game here for you.

Below is my design for each level:

I won't claim them to be simple. But they aren't bad either!

Share links to your contraptions as a comment.

This is a wonderful game. My classmate Manoj asked me this as a puzzle (ofcourse I solved it!) and then my friend AKS told me that this is available online too. I searched and found the game. The graphics of the flash game was superb. So, I have posted it here. Try to solve the puzzle.

Description:

Help the priests and devils to cross the river. Be careful though, they don't like each other. If the number of Devils is greater than the number of priests (on either side of the bank), then the Priests would be killed by the Devils.




Hope you enjoyed this puzzle game!

Try a similar kind of game which I have posted in my blog long back.

THE IQ GAME....TIME TO TEST YOUR IQ!!!!