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Wordoku Unbound #1

4.0 out of 5 stars 29 ratings
Love Sudoku? And word puzzles? Then you'll love Wordoku.

A fun twist on Sudoku, Wordoku puzzles use the letters of a word or phrase instead of numbers. Each row, column, and 3x3 box in the puzzle contains all of the letters in a given word or phrase, which is unique in each puzzle. Just like Sudoku, fill all the empty cells with the correct letters to complete the puzzle.

You can use in-cell notes as you solve the puzzles just like you would on paper. If you're stuck, you can get a hint to keep going or move on to a different puzzle -- you can always return to previous pages later.

Wordoku contains one hundred elegant, carefully crafted puzzles that will challenge and delight puzzle fans of all skill levels. That's because you get to pick the calibrated difficulty level of the puzzles -- easy, medium, or hard.

Whatever your skill and solving style, you'll enjoy Wordoku puzzles on Kindle!
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This title is only available on select devices and the latest version of the Kindle app. Please refer to the supported device list before purchase. Available on these devices

Product details

  • Date First Available ‏ : ‎ December 9, 2010
  • Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ Puzzazz
  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004EIJP1E
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 out of 5 stars 29 ratings

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
29 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers enjoy the Wordoku Unbound puzzles, with one noting it's a nice variation on Sudoku. Moreover, the difficulty level receives positive feedback, with one customer mentioning it's suitable for experienced Sudoku solvers. Additionally, customers find the product worth their money. However, the ease of use receives mixed reviews, with one customer finding it very easy to maneuver through while another finds it confusing.

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17 customers mention "Fun puzzles"17 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the Wordoku Unbound puzzles, describing them as a delightful experience with plenty of options, and one customer notes it's a nice variation on Sudoku.

"...As an added bonus - a great way to memorize the spelling of the words used." Read more

"...Overall, Wordoku Unbound #1 is a delightful puzzling experience at a price level that shows why e-books are a welcome innovation...." Read more

"...For starters, the book is dynamic. There are 100 puzzles, but I'm not locked into the "factory setting" difficulty levels...." Read more

"...My only complaint is that these puzzles are so much fun, that every time I turn on my Kindle, I start solving a Wordoku instead of reading the book..." Read more

14 customers mention "Difficulty level"14 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the difficulty level of the Sudoku puzzles, with one customer noting they can be set to any level from easy to hard, while another mentions they are enjoyable for solvers of all skill levels.

"...The puzzles automatically recognize and congratulate a correctly completed puzzle, and automatically recognize and warn you that a completed puzzle..." Read more

"...Solving is smooth. The interface is intuitive, and switching between taking notes and filling in answers is easy enough that I figured out how to..." Read more

"...The interface is good, though I wish you could "wrap around" the grid, moving the cursor from one edge of the grid to the opposite with one click,..." Read more

"..." twist, these puzzles are just like Sudoku, but provide an interesting extra challenge in that you have to keep a set of letters in your head while..." Read more

5 customers mention "Value for money"5 positive0 negative

Customers find the Wordoku Unbound #1 to be worth their money.

"...Overall, Wordoku Unbound #1 is a delightful puzzling experience at a price level that shows why e-books are a welcome innovation...." Read more

"...It's a nice product, but I've never felt that reading a book on a Kindle was better in any significant way...." Read more

"...I found it worth my money because you can do all the puzzles in easy(default) then erase them all and set the level to medium then erase again and..." Read more

"...I didn't feel like reading, so I decided to give this a try. It was great! I solved eight puzzles while I was waiting for my plane to board...." Read more

6 customers mention "Ease of use"4 positive2 negative

Customers have mixed experiences with the software's ease of use, with some finding the interface smooth and easy to navigate, while others report that errors are not automatically flagged and can be confusing.

"...These puzzles are perfect for getting around such difficulties. As an added bonus - a great way to memorize the spelling of the words used." Read more

"It's okay, but can be confusing because you're trying to find letters instead of words. I get a little irritable when I play Wordoku...." Read more

"...Solving is smooth...." Read more

"...The user interface is very smooth -- it is obviously designed by people who are serious about their puzzles and know what is going to feel good for..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Seth L Lemons
    2.0 out of 5 stars Not A Fan
    Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2011
    Verified Purchase
    I loved playing Sudoku with my grandfather. Wordoku did not compare in the least. The layout was nice, and I enjoyed the interface of the Kindle, but it was not something I used more than twice.
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  • Lori
    3.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as Sudoku
    Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    It's okay, but can be confusing because you're trying to find letters instead of words. I get a little irritable when I play Wordoku. I don't care for it too much at this time.
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  • K. Cyr
    4.0 out of 5 stars Great for Number-phobics
    Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    I love normal Sudoku, but I have a tendancy to mix numbers - see a nine and think it's a six, etc. These puzzles are perfect for getting around such difficulties. As an added bonus - a great way to memorize the spelling of the words used.
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  • Lyle Wiedeman
    5.0 out of 5 stars Puzzazz opens new worlds for your Kindle
    Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2011
    Verified Purchase
    There are many things to love about your Kindle, and your favorites may not be mine. What we probably will agree on is that anything that enriches and expands your Kindle experience is welcome.

    Enter Puzzazz ([...]), a company that makes interactive Kindle content, and "Wordoku Unbound #1", their first puzzle book. Wordoku is like Sudoku but it uses a selection of nine letters rather than the digits 1-9. The Wordoku book comes with 100 "carefully crafted" puzzles for a mere three cents per puzzle.

    While being able to do puzzles on your Kindle is a bonus in itself, the Puzzazz team has carefully designed, tested, and re-designed the interface to maximize the predictability, flexibility, and invisibility (get out of my way and let me solve) of the puzzle experience. They've tried to capture the simplicity of pencil-solving, while adding value with features only an interactive program could offer. They've also done their market research - different people approach Wordoku in different ways, and the interface does a good job of allowing you to have it your way.

    One thing I like about Wordoku: using letters emphasizes that this is a logic puzzle, not a math puzzle. The Puzzazz team has chosen to populate their puzzles with 9-letter selections that can be assembled into a simple mnemonic phrase: "Chest Xray," "Brown Suit," what have you. This not only allows you to keep the 9 letters in your head, but it enriches the solving experience by changing the target letters from puzzle to puzzle.

    There are many features in the interface I found particularly gratifying. You can set the difficulty level (easy - medium - hard) at any time. Puzzles you have begun or finished don't change, but blank puzzles all switch to the new difficulty level.

    Letters you enter have a distinctly different font from the "given" starting letters which is useful for double-checking your reasoning.

    The puzzles support partial solutions ("notes"), a feature which is essential at the higher difficulty levels. The nine candidate letters always take up a given position in the cell. When you have lock-out conditions (two cells with exactly the same two candidates, e.g.) the consistent positioning of the letters draws that opportunity to your attention. (For those who prefer, there is a `notes only' mode where single entries are treated as notes from the get-go.)

    The puzzles automatically recognize and congratulate a correctly completed puzzle, and automatically recognize and warn you that a completed puzzle has errors. This is something a paper puzzle cannot do.

    Errors are not automatically flagged, as in some competing products. For me, being unable to make mistakes would completely ruin the solving experience. But to limit frustration, there are plenty of available crutches (undo, hints, etc.) You can tackle the puzzles with just the challenges that engage you. I did find that when I was deep into the consequences of a mistake, it was nice to "clear all errors" and resume solving rather than starting over, but beware - it only clears incorrect solutions, not incorrect notes!

    The one thing of which the Kindle is just incapable is point-and-go. You can move a pencil quickly to any cell in a newspaper puzzle, but you have to scroll on the Kindle. Puzzazz takes some of the sting out of this by using the shift key to jump to the far top, bottom, left, or right from your current cell.

    There are so few things that nettled, it seems ungenerous to point them out. Read the instructions carefully. They really help avoid confusion and frustration until you learn the interface.

    The first letter you type in a cell is treated as a solution - additional letters convert the cell to "notes" mode. They've done their best toward readability, but some solvers will be challenged to make out nine tiny letters in a cell.

    Notes toggle: press `d' and it becomes a candidate. Press `d' again and it's removed (like erasing a note from a paper puzzle.) However, removing the next-to-last candidate does not convert the final candidate from a note to a solution. I ended up using the `del' key to clear a cell and typing in my final solution. Eventually it dawned on me this asymmetry actually captures the paper experience.

    The dependency on the five-way direction control sometimes led me to hit the "back" button (which acts as the "undo") when scrolling down and with no idea what I'd just undone, I wished I'd had a "redo".

    Overall, Wordoku Unbound #1 is a delightful puzzling experience at a price level that shows why e-books are a welcome innovation. I look forward to many new releases from Puzzazz.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Elizabeth
    2.0 out of 5 stars Don't Really See the Point
    Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2011
    And this is an improvement (or even a reasonable alternative) to standard Sudoku with integers ... how?

    There are 9 non-zero integers. The grid is 9 columns by 9 rows that combine into 9 mini-grids with 9 squares each. What is supposed to be the point of using the 9 X 9 grid with 9 letters chosen from a 26 letter alphabet? Sudoku has a wonderful deceptive simplicity that is beautiful. Wordoku just seems bland.

    Want a good word game on Kindle? There are a couple of really dynamic ones like Word Soup and Shuffled Row that I play when I want to use the alphabet. And there is at least one good classic Sudoku that has the same note and redo features as this one. I play that a lot.
    5 people found this helpful
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  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Finally a book that's better on the Kindle than in real life
    Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2010
    Verified Purchase
    I like my Kindle, but to this point have mostly seen it as a novelty. I like the feel of a physical book in my hands, and haven't felt the need to walk around town with dozens of books at my fingertips (I'm generally not reading more than one at a time). It's a nice product, but I've never felt that reading a book on a Kindle was better in any significant way.

    After downloading this yesterday, I'm changing my tune. This is very different. For the first time, I've got a book that's far superior on a Kindle than it would ever be in "real life". Apparently, puzzle books are perfect for this format. The puzzles themselves are well-crafted - a lot better than what I typically find in puzzle books (most of which are filled with computer-generated factory dreck). But that's not really my point. It's that *solving* them in this format is so much more satisfying.

    For starters, the book is dynamic. There are 100 puzzles, but I'm not locked into the "factory setting" difficulty levels. They're not all easy, medium or hard - nor are they evenly distributed. They're whatever I want them to be. I kept them on easy at first, until I got the hang of the format, and then ramped them up to medium (which were plenty tough enough for me, so I didn't try the hard setting).

    Solving is smooth. The interface is intuitive, and switching between taking notes and filling in answers is easy enough that I figured out how to do it without referring to the instructions. There is also a robust "undo" function that makes use of the back button - clever.

    Clearing a finished puzzle out so that someone else in your house can give it a go is just one click, and that's definitely something I've never done after filling out a paper grid. In fact, you can triple the number of puzzles you're getting here, by solving a page on a given difficulty level, clearing it out and trying it again with a different setting. I'm fairly certain that's impossible with a physical puzzle book.

    So, I think I've finally found my "killer app" - a book that is truly superior on a Kindle. Looking forward to seeing what other other types of puzzle books Puzzazz has coming down the pike.
    44 people found this helpful
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