Sudoku is a craze that's been sweeping the nation, and indeed the entire planet, for a couple of years now, but I've never taken the time to bother looking at it. Until now that is. Hosted by the eponymous housewife next door, Carol Vorderman's Sudoku is a great little puzzler regardless of whether you're a novice or an expert.

Graphically you can't expect a lot from a game like this, and while more variation in the backgrounds and music would've been nice, everything is well presented. The menus are easy to navigate, with explanations of the various modes on offer (and a few pics of Carol thrown in for good measure!) and the single background tune is a wonderfully chilled out ambient number with haunting chords and an intermittent drumbeat that you can listen to for hours without it becoming annoying.

So with the question of presentation out of the way, what exactly is Sudoku all about? For those not in the know, it's a number puzzle where you utilise a range of logical elimination techniques to determine the placement of 81 numbers into a grid. A sudoku grid is broken down into 9 mini-grids of 3x3 and the rules of Sudoku are very simple - each mini-grid, column of 9 boxes in the main grid and row of 9 boxes in the main grid, must each contain the numbers 1 through 9. You're given some of the numbers at the start of the puzzle and it's your job to fill in the rest so that, when you're done, each mini-grid contains the numbers 1 through 9, and each row and column also contains the numbers 1 through 9, with no repetition of numbers in any mini-grid, row or column. Simple, right? Well, it is fairly simple on Easy, but as you progress through Medium to Difficult and Super-Difficult, things become a lot more challenging and advanced techniques are needed to solve each puzzle you're presented with.

There are a number of advantages that this game has over its pen and paper equivalent, the only disadvantage being, of course, that you can't take it with you when you're out and about. The first advantage is a series of very clear and well-explained tutorial videos, presented by our very own Carol, which start right from scratch and explain the basic concepts for a Sudoku newbie like me. The basic techniques for solving easy puzzles are given, then you can go off, solve a few, think you're bloomin' marvellous and that this Sudoku lark isn't so tough after all, then try Medium and get stuck! Back to the Tutorial section then, with almost ten more tips available for solving the Medium, Difficult and Super-Difficult puzzles. The effectiveness of these videos was undoubtedly proven when in the space of three or four hours I went from never having played Sudoku to solving my first Super-Difficult puzzle - thanks Carol!

The second advantage is that there's no faffing about pencilling in possible numbers and then rubbing them out as you eliminate possibilities and fill in numbers. The PS2 controller is utilised effectively for moving around the grid, entering a number, or entering multiple 'pencil' numbers to denote all the possible numbers that could fit into any given space. The strategy comes in by using the numbers you already have to work out the rest - you begin by working up and down sections of three mini-grids at a time (which can be split into the top, centre and bottom rows and left, centre and right columns). So if you have a 1 in the top and bottom mini-grids of the left column and there's only one possible space where a 1 could go in the middle mini-grid, without causing a clash of two 1s in the same column, then you can place the 1 in there. With that 1 placed you might be able to work out where other 1s go, and you carry on up through the numbers (or dot around as you please) until you're filling out rows, columns and mini-grids because there's only one number left to find.

More advanced techniques that you can use include slicing and dicing, slicing and slotting, twinning and triplets, and more - I won't attempt to explain these here, as Carol does a great job in the Tutorial, but suffice to say there's enough to this game to make it compulsively addictive and challenging without getting boring. Indeed, it's the kind of game you can play for hours on end without realising that the time has passed.

Another advantage of this game over pen and paper is that you're given a grid on the right hand side that shows you how many of each number you've placed (and when you accidentally place more than 9 of one number, meaning you've made a mistake), so you can start on the numbers that are most frequently occurring for the most time-efficient beginning. You'll need to work fast too, at least if you're to attempt any of the Arcade games, all of which have a timer counting down.

This is another great feature of Carol Vorderman's Sudoku - there's a range of modes here to keep you occupied and give you as much or as little challenge as you require. Classic mode has no limit (the timer counts up so you know how long each puzzle took to solve) with the four difficulty levels, while Arcade has four modes for you to try your hand at, each of them with the range of difficulties to pick from. Beat the Clock is self-explanatory, Extra Time starts with little time on the clock and you earn time for every correct number placed, with bonuses for quick placements in succession, Perfection challenges you to complete the puzzle as quickly as you can without a single error (but you carry on even if you do make a mistake), while 3 Strikes only allows three mistakes, then it's game over. There's a multi-tiered career mode that takes you through a series of puzzles from Yellow Belt all the way up to Black Belt, and then there's Challenge Carol, which starts off tough and keeps getting tougher, as you attempt to solve increasingly difficult puzzles within Carol's stingily tight time limit!

If all this wasn't enough, there are three multiplayer modes too; Free-For-All sees you racing an opponent on the same puzzle, where the winner is the first to correctly fill in a set number of boxes. Beware though - make a mistake and your opponent gets the number auto-filled and scores a point! Quickfire is a timed battle where you take it in turns to place a number on the same puzzle, and making a mistake gives you a time penalty. The player with the lowest time at the end of the match wins. Lastly, Time Attack sees you taking it in turns for short bouts to complete your own puzzle (so the person not currently playing can't plan out their moves while waiting their turn watching you!) and if you make a mistake, your turn ends and your opponent gets extra time. These modes are competitive and a lot of fun if you have a friend who enjoys Sudoku - I know this all sounds geeky, but it's a great idea to include some multiplayer and the variations are all cleverly designed. Throw in a Sudoku Solver, which will solve any Sudoku puzzle you enter into it (say the super-hard one in today's paper that you're totally stuck on!) and you've got a package that's fantastic value for money.

You might be a Sudoku lover, or you might turn your nose up at the prospect of a 'maths puzzle game' on your PS2, but regardless of your opinion you should seriously think about picking up Carol Vorderman's Sudoku, especially at its meagre budget price. With a range of helpful tutorial videos, loads of different modes and challenges, four difficulty levels to incorporate novice and expert alike, and even the multiplayer modes and Sudoku Solver, this game has an indefinite shelf life, unlike many of those shooters, racers and platform game you paid full price for, which will probably be gathering dust in a couple of months.

Reviewed by Geoff Holland for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).