Icosoku Junior

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Sometime ago I reviewed one the best puzzles by Recent Toys, the Brain Dice. Today, I'm going to talk about another nice puzzle from them, but this time from 2011. The puzzle is called IcoSoKu Junior and it was designed by the same person, Andrea Mainini.

The name can be confused with the widely popular Sudoku game, but it's not even remotely similar. The only thing the two games have in common is they both use numbers, but that's it. If you've played with Brain Dice, then the concept is somewhat similar, since you also have to match the dots on the tiles with the numbers on the puzzle.

This is the easier version of the IcoSoKu puzzle. On this one, the numbers are only 1 to 4, but on the original version it's from 1 to 12. Both puzzles are the same size, though, and are quite big, which is great for a puzzle like this.

The idea of the puzzle is to remove the tiles from the puzzle and the numbers. Then, you mix all pieces and put them back in the puzzle so that the sum of black dots on the tiles match the numbers 1/4 on the puzzle. Each number has three pieces scattered around the puzzle, and each number is surrounded by five tiles. The puzzle is solved when all numbers match the sum of all tiles surrounding them. A great thing about this puzzle is that all configurations have at least one solution.

In terms of difficulty, this puzzle is a little easier than the Brain Dice. There are some tiles that don't have any black dots so it becomes easier to place all tiles in the puzzle. This one is good to practice for the more challenging 12-number IcoSoKu.

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Closing Comments:

IcoSoKu is a puzzle that you won't want to put down. The replay value on this puzzle is huge with endless configurations and solutions, so you always have a different challenge to solve. Andrea Mainini is definitely a puzzle designer you should pay more attention.

Availability: You can get a copy of IcoSoku Junior at PuzzleMaster for just $25.99 CAD. Check out other puzzles by Recent Toys.