You may have read my previous post about Sudoku’s and the many variations that I have found over the years to keep the challenge and mind thinking! So beyond the classic and more challenging Sudoku’s I moved on again.

So I searched out other logic, number games and came across this book by Chambers “Beyond Sudoku; Japenese number puzzles”. I would recommend it, I have actually two copies one for personal use the other I have cut up and laminated for in use in the classroom.

Hashi- Also known as bridges

One of my favourites and very easy to get the hang of but challenging enough! The circles represent islands to be connected by bridges. The number indicates the number of bridges connected to that island, the maximum number of bridges between two island is two (beware this doesn’t isolate the islands). Puzzlemix.com is a great place for all the following puzzles, create a free puzzle and you can save it for later. Another site with over 2 million puzzles has enough to keep those brains ticking over the Christmas break.

Kakuro- Also known as cross sums

It looks like a cross word but the numbers don’t lead to a written clue the numbers are the clue, as well as the number of cells. The number represents the total of the digits for example if a total is 3 and there are only two cells, you know the two digits are 1 and 2. This is a good starting point! Though I must admit I have not truly mastered the kakuro and so found these tips useful.

For a free daily puzzle click here.

Hanjie- Also known as Griddler, Nonagram or Paint by numbers

A blank grid, at the end of each row and column the number identifies the number of cells that need to be shaded as part of the picture. Remember that a comma between each number indicates at least one square gap. Good website to play easy to hard hanjie games online but you can not save your game. Once you’ve got the hang of the controls this is a great piece of free software. However if you sign up for free with puzzlemix.com you can save your games for later!

Slither Link Also known as fences

This game takes me back to playing boxes with my grandparents as a young child. Although this game you do connect the dots you do not make boxes, but instead one big island. The number refers to the number of lines, the maximum being 3 sides (anymore would create an isolated island). Best hint I got was to find the 0’s next to a 3, as the side between the two can not be an edge therefore the other 3sides of the number 3 must be!

The Krazydad website has lots of slitherlink puzzles of varying degrees of diffulty as well as variations on the classic game. My favourite the Rhomboid slitherlinks and there are 100 downloadable books enough to keep even I busy! Also it would be rude to not pay special attention to the snowflake slitherlink at this time of year.

Fillomino- 

Each cell in the end will contain a number, the number identifies how many cells of the same number are joined. For example 2, means there are two squares with the digit 2 in, therefore no adjoining cells can be part of a 2 formation. Fillomino strategies are available here, I found these useful. For your daily online fillomino online game click here. An archive of printable fillomino’s are available here.

Nurikabe