Sudoku became all the rage a few years back. You can’t go to any news stand or read a newspaper without finding Sudoku puzzles everywhere. So it’s only logical to bring the game to the iPhone.

If you’re not familiar with Sudoku, let me break it down for you. The game consists of a 9×9 grid that must be filled with numbers. Each row, column, and the nine 3×3 boxes must each contain the numbers 1 through 9 but only once each. It’s a fun challenge and can range from easy to insanely hard.

EA’s iPhone version of Sudoku has close to ten thousand puzzles to solve across five difficulty levels. To fill in a cell, you tap on it and then tap the number you choose. The game offers the option of error checking, so you’ll know right away if you put the wrong number in the wrong cell. You can also tap the “?” icon for help, which will fill in one of the cells for you. The last help option is to tap the grid icon which will give you Candidate Numbers Auto-Fill. All possible numbers will be placed in each cell to give you some assistance on finishing the puzzle.

If you end up finishing all of the 10,000 puzzles in the game, there is a Newspaper mode where you can enter the puzzles from magazines or newspapers and try to solve them on your iPhone. Why not just solve them in the newspaper, though?

There are plenty of Sudoku applications available for your iPhone. EA’s version is the most expensive at $7.99. With most other versions being free or $2.99 at most, it’s tough to recommend going with the this version of the popular puzzle game. While the visual style and background music are appealing, it’s not enough to make this version worth the additional cost.

Verdict: Skip It