Sumaddle

So I enjoy this game a lot, the concept is fun and it’s a good mental workout, the app works well, no obnoxious ads which is rare these days, and I have purchased several puzzle packs and have fun going through them! I have 4 sets of the scary level puzzles, and one feature I wish this app had would be the ability to go back and clear/reset only certain puzzle sets or individual puzzles. Sometimes I solve a few puzzles using hints, and I wish we could see which ones we’ve solved with hints and have the option to clear those and try again, without having to use the “reset all” button. I’ve played through the first pack of the scary level puzzles WAY too often because I wanted to play through some of my purchased packs again. I’m sure other people out there want to play their purchased puzzles more than once without having to clear and replay the sample puzzles again. If you can add this feature so we can clear certain puzzles after completing them to try them again, I’d rate 5 stars!!! Part of the fun is seeing if you can improve your scores/times, but having to clear all 4 sets of puzzles when there are maybe 6 I wanted to retry can be a hassle, since the game automatically tries to make me play them in order when using the next puzzle button.

Sumaddle is a great game for fans of number puzzles. I was looking for something that was a little more challenging than sudoku, and this game really delivers. I was more than happy to pay the couple dollars for the extra puzzle sets and the endless puzzle option, and it’s continued to keep me entertained for several months. My only criticism is that I sometimes get penalized for “using help” even when I haven’t asked for a hint. It seems to happen when I am trying to remove a number from the possible options in a box, and I double tap the number. If I’m too slow, the game thinks I meant to put that number in, it tells me that the number is not a possible option for that row’s sum, and then I get docked points. It can be a bit of a killjoy when you’re proud of finishing a puzzle, and then you get the notification, “Your score would have been higher if you hadn’t used hints.” Other than that, it’s still a 5-star game, and it will remain a staple on my phone.

One of the best aspects about this game is the hint function! Starting with just telling you whether everything on your board looks correct or if there appears to be an error somewhere (if so, you get the choice of just removing the wrong bits, restarting from scratch, or undoing some of your last moves and seeing if that fixes things), asking for more of a hint tells you what row or column to look at for your next move and shows you the possible combinations of numbers that equal the sum for that column or row, and asking for additional help pencils in the available options for each cell in that row or column, with the option to view an explanation of how you can come to such conclusions. The only downside is there is no option to selectively pencil in notes for yourself beyond whether something is a number or a block. Sometimes I can eliminate certain options for a cell myself, but without being able to selectively pencil in numbers, I can’t keep track of those unless I keep them in my head (difficult to do when I still see those eliminated options penciled in) or write them down on paper. Please add an option to shift between pencil/notes and pen/confirmed modes!